Gaz in Wonderland
by Lilly Winters
Summary: Based off of Alice in Wonderland. Fairytales did not exist, this much Gaz knew. So why is it that he's able to make it seem so real? In a wild twist of events, Zim is able to bring Wonderland to life and perhaps Gaz will see that you really do have to "read between the lines" in order to find the true meaning of what's being said. And maybe some really are as mad as a Hatter...Zagr
1. Chapter 1

**A/N**

**I have returned from the dead! Kidding, but boy it sure seems that way. I have not written in a very long time. I was going through a dip in depression and was so un-motivated that I did not even want to write, but I decided to put all that to the side and begin one of my sure-to-be-a-hit stories: Gaz in Wonderland! I actually like how the first chapter turned out.**

**So, before I blabber on, I hope you like the story!**

**I do NOT own Invader Zim or Alice in Wonderland.**

**Enjoy and Review!**

It was the beginning of December, Thanksgiving a fading memory that waved goodbye with a bittersweet gesture. Snow began to trickle across the ground and kissed the grass, only to leave behind a frosty whisper crossing the plains. If anyone had foretold of the future she was to encounter why, they must be mad. As mad as a hatter…

And so it was that she continued on with her life. Much crossed her path, but she rarely gave it a second thought and put it on its way, right out of her overall existence. That was the way Gaz had always been. Since she was young, she learned to decipher life; sorting through the fact and fiction, she set herself up not for a fairytale that her dreams birthed, yet a world with as little disappointments as possible. Though she could not avoid it all, her father and brother being the very root of science and progress, she steered clear of that way of life and remained in her own realm of solitude and rested her stern focus on what really mattered.

Who declared what was important in this world? What was important? Some may say money, riches beyond the wildest dreams. Others stated that family and happiness was all that one needed. So if all of that were true, why did she feel so unfulfilled? She had family. Even though they were not a picture-perfect family, an image of the American dream, she still had a brother and a father. Though they seldom communicated with one another, their presence was still known.

Most of the time.

And due to the success of her famous father, they had money to spare. Never before had she worried that they would go hungry, that one day they would lose the house, lose it all. So why wasn't she happy? What was it that little Gaz craved the most?

"Peace."

The shower drizzled down a rain of steaming water that covered her bare shoulders and back. As she breathed in the humid moisture, she laid her back against the almond, creamy walls surrounding her. She listened to the water cleansing her body. It tickled every root of hair, sunk into each pore, and doused every freckle.

It was not often that she could relax and leave the insanity of her whirling life to search out a moment of serenity. Usually whenever she finally managed to unearth the well hidden tranquility, someone would find a way to disturb her and interrupt the scarce feeling. For once it seemed that she was able to rest.

A thud on the door caused her eyes to slowly open. With an irritable sigh, she listened to her brother holler through the locked door, "Gaz! How long are you going to be in there? It's almost time for school and I still have to take a shower!"

She banged her fist against the wall, switched off the rain of water, and slid the glass shower doors open. Stepping into her black cotton robe, she wrapped it securely around her body before peering into the mirror. Dark circles beneath her eyes, frowning eyebrows, and a weeping grimace to rot the world; it was not the sight she had wished to see, especially if that image was of herself.

She swung the door open and stepped passed her brother who lectured her for the great deal of time she had spent inside the bathroom. Inside the safety of her room, she swished the towel across her violet hair and produced a tangled mass of weaving tresses. Her robe slid to the floor and with icy feet, she stepped into her closet to retrieve the usual outfit: a black dress that hung over magenta, black-striped leggings, complete with a skull necklace.

Dib waited impatiently outside her room as he listened to the hair dryer roaring. When all was calm, he banged on the door. "We've got to go to school now, Gaz. Or we'll be late!"

She scoffed.

Shooing him off after reaching for her backpack, she glanced around the house one more time before closing the front door.

It was only the middle of the day and already she was bored. It was the same routine over and over. Dib would argue with Zim and point out that he was a being not of this world, failing each time. She slipped in and out of each class without speaking so much as a single word to neither her peers nor her teacher. At lunch, she would drown herself in her video game and continue to ignore her brother's rants of Big Foot and Loch Ness. A sigh of relief and she stepped into her English class, escaping her brother's lectures. She shot a glance at Miss Bitters who remained perched at her desk with a scowling glare. She reminded her much of a mocking gargoyle. How she had managed to gain a class of hers even years after elementary school had ended, she did not know. But what she did know was that this was the class she dreaded most for she had come to expect the one peer that sat right behind her: Zim.

"Of all the people…" she muttered as she took her seat. Zim hardly noticed her presence and remained messing with the device hidden in his hands.

"Class, we have something very important to talk about," Miss Bitters began. As she continued, Gaz mouthed out the words as the teacher spoke. She said the same thing every day. "We are going to discuss your pitiful existence and see if you have any hope of making it in this dark world."

Gaz zoned out for the remainder of class, ignoring the familiar reminder that each student in the room was doomed to a life of working for Bloaty's Pizza Hog and scrounging for quarters in broken payphones.

She was so unfocused that she nearly missed the tidbit of information that the teacher said at the end of class. "Wait," she said, sitting up, "what?"

Miss Bitters frowned but repeated herself. "I said that due to the principle hoping to reduce the misery of this school, each grade level has been assigned a novel to read. So for homework, I want each of you to read the first eighty pages of this." In her hands was a copy of _Alice in Wonderland_.

"Are you kidding me?" Gaz groaned as she passed the stalk of books back to Zim.

"The Gaz-human does not wish to partake in this human ritual?" Zim asked.

"It's not a ritual," she spat, "it's just some stupid story."

Zim glanced at the cover. "I believe I have read this before…"

She rolled her eyes and replied unenthusiastically, "Congratulations."

"It was when I first arrived on this pathetic planet," he continued. "I happened to read several of your "Earthly novels" in hopes of gaining information about your people. But I must say that I have never seen a Mad Hatter or a rabbit in a waist coat. And who is this Alice that they refer to over and over again?"

"They aren't real," she said, standing to leave when the bell rang. "It's just some fictional story. It doesn't matter."

He followed her into the hallway, much to her detest. She entered the combination into her locker and shoved the books within. Zim leaned against the wall of metal doors and crossed his arm.

"Gaz-human does not care for fiction?"

"Why would I?"

"Why shouldn't you?"

She shrugged. "It only reminds me that this world is the exact opposite of a fairytale."

"You surprise me, little Gaz. Every other female worm I have met is constantly daydreaming of fantasies and Prince Dashing. Why not you?"

"First, it's Prince Charming." She sighed. "And forgive me for not waiting up for a knight in shining armor, but I don't believe in happily ever after."

He rubbed his fingers together and stared at her questionably. "Is that so?"

"I'm not going to get my hopes up like everyone else and become disappointed when Charming doesn't arrive. I don't need anyone to save me. I can handle myself."

"Interesting…"

"Yeah, well," she closed her locker and walked down the hall, "if you think the stuff in the books can really happen, then let me know how that works out for you."

Zim drummed his fingers together, his eyes squinting at the girl as he hummed, "Yes, interesting. Very interesting indeed…"

**A/N**

**Uh-oh. I believe Zim is planning something for our little Gaz xD**

**Chapter 2 will arrive shortly!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N**

**Just for future knowledge, this story will not be exactly like the real **_**Alice in Wonderland**_** or the 2010 movie. It will resemble it closely but I may decide to add my own style or twist to it. Also, some of the characters may not be present in the story due to the fact that Invader Zim has fewer characters to fill the roles. **

**Enjoy!**

And so, for the remainder of the week, her hours were consumed with the reading of _Alice in Wonderland_. Gaz also noted a peculiar pattern developing in the midst of her time. Every day during English class, Zim would strive to strike up a conversation more and more. It became a routine, the very occurrence become habitual.

But what struck her as odd were the questions he would ask during their conversing. It was not the typical school talk she heard fluttering through the halls. No, it was much more. He asked her questions. Many, many complex and thought-provoking questions. And odd ones at that. He asked her of her dreams, fantasies, and desires. Each time he was surprised to find that her answers varied greatly from that of the average student.

She did not know why it baffled him so. Did he not know she was different from the rest? What did he expect her replies to be? As far as she saw it, there were the Jocks, Geeks, Goths, Cheerleaders, and then there was Gaz in a completely separate, solitude group. But then again, Zim was in his own category too. Perhaps that is why she found herself talking to him more and more.

On one particular afternoon, he stopped her at the third floor landing of the school building. Like rocks thudding to the bottom of a sandbank in the midst of a river, they alone were frozen in time while the daily lives of others continued on.

She had been making her way through when someone grabbed onto the straps of her backpack. She blinked in confusion when she found Zim standing behind her, his eyes ever observant. Each stood, waiting for the other to act. He stared at her thoughtfully before speaking.

"You are headed home?" he asked, rather in a statement then a question.

She nodded.

"What are your plans?"

"I'm probably just going to play some video games and, of course, read this." Her hand held the novel up dully. Sighing, she dropped it back into her backpack while he shifted uneasily. After the various questions he had plagued her with throughout the week, she was becoming familiar with their conversations and no longer fought to answer him. Instead she gave way, but not all the way. If she was to answer, it would be as vague as possible. Gaz hardly ever confided in anyone, including aliens.

"And then you will sleep?"

She raised an eyebrow, now suspicious. "Why does it matter?"

He crossed his arms. "Tell me, Gaz. What do you think of the girl in the book, this 'Alice?' "

"I don't know. Why all of these questions?"

"Just curious. Why do you not want to tell me?"

"Okay, fine. She was a girl that got caught up in a fantasy world with not much to work with except a rabbit in a waistcoat and a mad hatter. But—"

"But?"

"If it were me, I would have just skipped to the end and found the way out."

"You think it would be that simple, Gaz?"

"I don't see why not."

He nodded slowly. "I see." Right as she was about to question him, he faced the stairs and trotted away. "I must admit, you interest me a great deal." He was out of sight instantly and by the time she rounded the corner of the stairs, he was completely gone.

"What did he mean by that?" she mumbled. But she was not about to find out anytime soon so she decided to leave it at that and contemplate it later.

The school doors swooped to a close and she crossed the sidewalk running between the row of bushes on either side. Kids laughed, people cussed, students fought; either way, she was separate from it all as she strolled away. No one minded the lone girl who crossed the street, seclusion her only company. They only paid mind to the people who they considered important.

Along the way, she heard the galloping of sneakers trampling the sidewalk. She did not have to look to know that it was her brother. Sure enough, she felt a hand rest on her shoulder as he panted her name. She growled at the contact and brushed his hand away. He ignored the gesture and struggled to catch his breath.

"What do you want, Dib?"

"I wanted to talk to you about something important. I wanted to ask you about Zim."

She looked both ways before crossing the street. "Zim is always doing something that you have to know about so this is nothing different. Why bother me with it now?"

"Because it involves you."

She stepped back just as a car drove by and splashed a film of murky water onto the sidewalk. Glancing back, she assumed Dib was not lucky enough to avoid the splash as he was dripping from head to toe. "What are you getting at, Dib?"

"I've been watching Zim lately—"

"Big shock—"

"And I've noticed that he has been following you more and more every day."

"He hasn't been following me. He is in my English class and we're both forced to read the same ridiculous book so he's been asking me some questions about that. What's the big deal?"

"The big deal? Gaz, you know why it's a big deal!" His key dived into the doorknob and with a soft _click_, the door opened. "He's just using you to get to me. He's slowly sneaking his way into your personal life so that he can spy on me."

"We've been talking about the book, nothing else. If he's really using that to," she emphasized the phrase, " 'get into my personal life' then he's going to have to work a lot harder than that. Now, go away. I have to do homework." She stepped onto the first step leading upstairs, but Dib hopped in front of her and blocked her path.

"Just tell me this: why the sudden interest in you? Why did he pick you to talk to above everyone else?"

"How should I know? Zim is always doing crazy things."

"Unless he's using you to his advantage."

She shook her head. "Just do me a favor and keep your paranormal paranoia to yourself." She brushed past him, her backpack thrashing against him. He rubbed his shoulder sorely and watched her go up the steps to her room.

"Watch your back, Gaz! There's more to him than meets the eye! He likes to mess with people. You're just another one of his games."

Her hands slid up the door and pushed it into the doorframe until it latched tightly. Shaking her bag up and down, the backpack spit out the book which tumbled across her bed and bounced to the floor. She grumbled and bent to her knees, her hand groping past the bed skirt. Yet when she expected to find the glazed surface of the book, her fingers settled upon that of a broken, knotted mess of what felt like metallic legs. It stabbed at her fingers and withdrew back with a hissing whirr. She cried out in pain and pulled her hand out, a spot of blood dripping from the puncture in her flesh.

She stooped over and peered beneath the bed, but found nothing. Crossing the room over to her bureau, she pulled out a flashlight and once again scanned over the dusty carpet.

Nothing.

Just as she was about to return to her search for the book, she paused. Her hand grew numb, the veins tingling with each pulse of blood traveling through her body. The flashlight slipped from her grip as she trembled. The sensation slowly made its way to the rest of her body. Her eyes travelled from the puncture wound down to the floor where they remained in a stunned gaze. She managed to scrape up the strength to stand, but instantly collapsed onto her bed. The air was forced from her body at the impact and she coughed with a great attack of arid frustration. She fought and fought, yet she could not resist the ever-approaching urge to close her eyes.

"I…can't go to sleep now…I-I…have to…I have to…"

She clawed at the blankets to find a way to stand. Her hand hit something. With her last bit of strength, she glanced at the bottom of the bed. It was the book.

The book she had lost beneath the shadows of her bed just moments ago.

"It can't be," she groaned.

Her eyelids dropped.

A faint ticking woke her from her dreams. Where was it coming from? It was echoing, echoing.

Why wouldn't the ticking stop? What clock was producing the sound? The only clock in her room was a digital clock. Digital clocks did not tick.

Her hand dragged across to silence the clock, but fell back. The bed, it was smooth like a slate of stone. When her fingers stroked it, she found the outline of tiles greeted her. Her room did not have tiles; it only had carpet. And then it occurred to her: she was not in her room.

She sat up, gasping. She reached up to cradle her head which hit the bottom of a round glass table. When she crawled out from beneath the table and peered around, she shook her head.

"Impossible."

**A/N**

**You will like chapter 3.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N**

**This was a fun chapter to write ^-^ And for those of you wondering, yes this will be a Zagr. **

**Enjoy!**

"Where am I?" she wondered, her voice bouncing off the walls that supported the vast amount of ticking clocks. While some clocks ticked slowly, humbly, the hands of others flew rapidly. Birds poked in and out, opening their mouths to construct a shattering shriek. She clutched her ears and hollered, "Stop!"

And they did.

She regarded the room with a bitter oppression as her eyes watched the clocks, waiting for them to start up once again. They remained silent so she scooted out from beneath the table. The skirt of her dress rested against the frame of her body as…wait a second. What skirt?

She growled down at the dress that covered her body. It was a deep plum color with a white apron covering the front. The spade, heart, diamond, and club symbol were printed in a black and red pattern across the hem of the apron. In her hair was a black headband with a silver skull on the corner.

"Okay, I have to get out of here."

A white floor with black diamond tiles surrounded her. All around were doors of different sizes and colors. The ceiling drew up into a point which held a swaying chandelier with candles ablaze. She was certainly not in her bedroom.

"I must be dreaming," she stated. But when she peered down at the puncture wound on her finger that was covered with dried blood, she knew otherwise. Though to be certain, she pinched the flesh around her forearm.

She did not wake up.

"Because this isn't a dream…"

She looked about and her eyes settled upon one of the many doors which surrounded her. One of them had to be unlocked. But as she tried each one, her faith in the previous hope diminished.

She glanced around and sighed in relief to find a key in the center of the table. She took it and pushed it into each hole of every door, but the key did not fit into any of the doors.

Was she trapped? Perhaps not. There was a door hidden behind a blood-red curtain that draped across. She tried the key and saw that it worked, the door opened. There was only one problem: it was much too small. Whenever she tried to squeeze through, she found that only her head and the top of her shoulders could make it through. It was a taunting idea as if someone was laughing at her at that very moment for just past the small door lay a world; a world only real in dreams.

But she could not see much past the trees and shrubbery surrounding the doorway so she pulled back and watched the door swoop shut.

Perhaps there was more on the table that would come to her aid. But she doubted it. When she retrieved the key, the top lay barren. Seeing that there was no other alternative, she glimpsed back and was shocked to discover a small bottle on the top. Her fingers pulled back the label which read "Drink Me."

She looked back at the small door and returned to the bottle. It was so small and the liquid within was a clear, harmless fluid that swished about. How much could it possibly do? Whether it could harm her or not, she was not sure but she had to escape this room of doors. She popped the cork out and threw her head back as the liquid streamed down her throat. She coughed, the lining of her mouth and throat burning.

Gaz glanced about and saw that nothing was happening. But wait, why was the table growing larger? No, the table was not growing larger; she was shrinking!

Her hands flailed the massive clothing of her dress away and she crawled out, clutching a piece of material to her body. She tied it around her and sprinted to the door, tugging on the handle. It was locked. On the table, the key glistened with a twinkle. She jumped and jumped, but could not reach.

"Look beneath the shadows of the twisted legs."

She stopped and looked around.

"Who said that?"

A faint snicker drifted away. Whoever had said it was gone. What did they mean "beneath the shadows of the twisted legs?" When she looked around, she saw nothing but the doors, curtain, chandelier, and table.

"I wonder…" she thought aloud. She stooped over and examined the ground. Just as the voice had suggested, a small box rested beneath the legs of the table. Her finger looped through the strand of velvet ribbon and tugged the lid open. A pastry rested within, the words "Eat Me" scrawled across.

She glanced back at the doors, the reminder that they were forever sealed growing.

"How can a piece of cake help me?"

Taunting laughter echoed from the ceiling. When she focused on the dessert in her hands, her eyes widened. She dropped it and pulled back.

It was just like the cake from the book _Alice in Wonderland_. The room was no different. Everywhere she looked, the details were a perfect match. Even the style of clothing in which she was forced to wear varied little from the famous Alice who had been lost in this very realm.

So someone was messing with her head? Whoever it was definitely had a knack for designing a world so true. But now was not the time to ponder just how they accomplished such a feat. She was going to get to the bottom of it.

She frowned and decided to go along with the game. Even if it was someone pulling her along on a hopeless endeavor, she was determined to find the being who laughed at her hopeless vulnerability.

Her teeth sunk into the spongy cake, the white icing crumbling to the sides. She set it back within the box and waited.

Nothing. Save for the sickening syrup-like sugar that coated her mouth, everything remained the same.

"What did I expect," she groaned. "That this would actually play out like the book? That's impossible." But just then, her body began to tingle. No, quiver. She stood and looked down. The floor grew further and further away. What was happening? She did not feel as though she were floating, so why was everything growing smaller.

It was because she was growing bigger.

Her head thumped the ceiling and she flattened her hands against the rimming of the room to steady herself. She minded her feet which nearly trampled the glass table.

Gasping, she clung to the little bit of clothing that covered her and snatched the key off of the table. A faint blush crept through her cheeks as she heard the snickering return. Someone was obviously enjoying the sight of her helplessly struggling.

With key in hand, she drank the remainder of the bottle of clear fluid and watched as she shrunk down once again. This time, she was able to open the door and step out into the strange world that waited just beyond. But right as she approached the door, her hand inching the key towards the hole, the voice spoke once more.

"So it would seem little Gaz has a bit of wit to her. She has passed this, but what will she do with the trials that lie just ahead?"

"I know that voice. Where have I heard it from?" Yet, she could not place a face to the voice. It was as though her thoughts had become mangled and knotted, forcing her into a corner. The holder of the tongue was certainly someone she had met. Whoever it was did not want her to know their identity. At least, not yet.

"Tick, tock, tick, tock. Time is running out. If a meeting is what you desire, you must learn not to doubt. Up ahead you'll find a world that does not seem at all true, but I can guarantee it's as real as me and you."

"Enough with the rhymes," she retorted. "Just show yourself and stop hiding!"

The voice said no more and disappeared behind the forbidden, yet sacred door. Was she to find this mystic keeper or was she to remain chasing after an illusion this realm had birthed? Either way the path led to what lied beyond the door so with hesitant hands, she opened the way and stepped into the sun.

**A/N**

**It would seem Zim likes to mess with Gaz's head xD**

**Chapter 4 will be up shortly!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N**

**Here is chapter 4! Zim makes me laugh in this chapter XD Plus there are some subtle Zagr hints ^-^ (mostly just Zim being near to her, but still) **

**Enjoy!**

All around it was like a dream. Flowers and plants foreign to Earth danced in a tickling breeze. Vines, twisted and knotted, housed small cubbies with large eyes that blinked in fascination at the stranger passing through this odd land. Large mushrooms gave off a fragrant aroma that resembled damp soil and fresh rain. She stepped back as she watched what appeared to be rocking-horse-flies soar by. They whinnied and chattered, playing and dancing to a melody only they heard.

She minded her footing and stepped over the crumbled cement that lay on the path before her. Towering, glistening gates greeted her to which she timidly stepped through. Faint whispers circled 'round her head. She peered back.

"Who's there?"

The whispering continued, but she saw not a soul. It was then that she happened to turn in time to see the flowers, yes the flowers, sneering at her. Their petals were crossed in a rude manner, their eyes frowning. She studied them up and down with skepticism tearing at the seams.

"Look at her hair, it's all wrong. That shade of dress does not do her well at all. Her posture is disgraceful!" The comments drew on.

She was ready to rip their roots from the ground that very instant, but they were the only form resembling life she had come in contact with (save for the rocking-horse-flies) so she had to ask them, "Where am I? What is this place?"

"…And it would appear uneducated too…" one of them remarked lowly.

She sat on her knees and began swiping the dirt away, revealing their roots. Her hands looped around the tangled mass and tugged. "Tell me now."

"Wait, wait!" they panicked. "If you must know, speak with the one who created this realm. He will tell you everything." They sunk into the ground, their petals closing up over their faces.

"Wait! I don't even know who created this place!"

But they did not listen and remained shut.

"It appears that little Gaz has already lost her way."

She turned to greet the owner of the voice and found herself stunned. "Zim?" But it was not the Zim she knew so well from school. Instead he wore a brown velvet jacket paired with brown pants that hung over mismatching socks. A plump black bow with white spots was wrapped around his neck. But what stood out the most was the oversized hat that sat perched atop his head. A card on the side, tucked in the band running 'round the frame, had an Irken symbol stamped on it. She did not know what to say so he took up her silence and made his own conversation.

"Let me save you the trouble, Gaz-human. This is Wonderland." His hands extended out as they both looked around; a pleased grin plastered 'cross Zim's face, a bewildered frown running across Gaz's.

"This can't be real."

"Can't it?"

"How could it? You expect me to believe that Wonderland is actually a real place?"

He leaned against a lamppost which housed a firefly the size of a shoe. Eyeing her contemplatively, he humored himself as he said, "If you believe this to be fake, then do me this favor: touch the creature standing behind you."

She turned and found a small white rabbit placed upon a tree trunk. In his hand was a ticking clock, standing out against the maroon waistcoat wrapped around his body. His tiny fingers drummed against the glass of the watch as he shook his head. "Oh, my. Oh, my," he repeatedly said. "I'm late. I'm late! Terribly late!"

"What it that?" Gaz asked.

"A white rabbit in a waistcoat," Zim replied obliviously.

Shooting an irritated glance his way, she stepped forward and poked the rabbit in the side. He yelped and with the flash of a turn, faced her.

"May I ask why you did such a thing?" the small creature questioned.

She shook her head. "It was not my idea."

"Is that so? Just tell me this: would you like someone poking you in the side while you were minding your own business? Well?"

She turned to Zim once more and he replied with a smirk. "Do you need any more proof?"

"You could have easily set that up. Just because there is the Rabbit from the book does not mean that I believe you."

"Persistent, aren't we?" He circled her slowly. "Okay, then what of the cake? The one that made you grow bigger? I suppose you will tell me that that was all your imagination of a meaningless hologram on my part, no?'

"I admit that was pretty convincing, but not enough to trick me." She strolled over to the gates and rested her hand through the metal fencing. "Dib warned me and I guess for once he was right. You do like to mess with peoples' heads."

He scoffed. "Do you think that is why you are here?" She made no move to respond so he came up behind her and extended his hand. She noted the various thimbles covering his fingers before looking up at him curiously. "If you are so certain that all of this is false, then you would not mind taking my hand."

"Where are you taking me?"

She placed her hand within his.

"I want to see just how stubborn you are, Gaz." He smiled to himself.

He led her away, past the trees and talking flowers. Soon she found that the innocence of the realm was slowly fading as they entered the darkness of a forest. Trees were broken, burnt, and shattered. Skeletons rested between the limbs and roots. On one in particular, a skeleton was pierced to a tree, a spear holding it to the bark. She looked back at Zim who was still smiling.

"Do you enjoy this?" she wondered.

"Who do you see me as, Gaz?" he asked instead.

"You look like the Mad Hatter."

"Exactly." He swooped behind her and held her firmly. His breath stroked her ears as she struggled to get away. "I suppose that makes me a little mad…"

She fought to release herself, but to no avail so simply relaxed and said, "What did you bring me here for?"

"Look down."

She did and found that they were at the top of a cliff. Her feet were barely scraping the edge and she found her body slowly slipping down. On instinct, she backed up right into Zim who still held her firmly.

"Tell me something, Gaz. Do you still think this is fake?" he growled. "How could a counterfeit realm produce such fear in you then?"

"I-I'm not afraid," she said lowly.

"Really?" His hands pressed against her, inching her closer to the edge. She gasped and gripped onto his jacket tightly.

"Okay. Okay, fine! I believe you! I believe this place! It's real! It's all real."

He grinned and nodded. He released her and pulled her back. In a disbelieving daze, she shook her head.

"It really is real," she whispered.

**A/N**

**First off, I wanted to explain something. You will see Zim in and out of the story: meaning that he will be both in Wonderland and in the real world. That will all be described in the next chapter. But in Wonderland, since he is the Mad Hatter, he is a little "mad". There will be times that he may seem out-of-character or do/say things that are very random, but this is only to show that, while in Wonderland, he is mad. In the real world, he will be normal. Well as normal as Zim can be :/**

**I thought he was kind of cute though XD**

**So how is the story turning out so far? I hope good =) Sometimes it is difficult to write because I don't want them to be too out-of-character, but I also want them to be a bit more "open" also. Oh well. Hopefully it is turning out all right.**

**Before I ramble on even more, I hope you enjoyed it. Chapter 5 will be up soon ^-^**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N**

**I received a wonderful review that really inspired me. A member said that they had expected my story to be like that of every other **_**Alice in Wonderland**_** parody, but were surprised to find that it actually had a plot to it and found it very entertaining. That was just the wake-up call I needed because shortly before, I was becoming slightly discouraged from the lack of interest in this story. I was beginning to wonder if anyone else would even find the story entertaining. Thanks be to that person for the uplifting message :). **

**Enjoy!**

"So now what?"

Zim peeked out from the brim of his hat and shrugged. "What do you mean?"

"Obviously you brought me here for a reason. You wouldn't have wasted your time creating this realm if there wasn't a reason, so why did you? What's the purpose of it all?"

Cradled between his fingers was a broken cup that dangled back and forth as he rocked it through the air. With his back rested against a clock that towered high above, he counted the thimbles on his fingers. "There was not much of a reason for you being here, Gaz, in all honesty."

Her shoulders slumped but she shook her head. "I know you wouldn't have wasted your time making all of this just to bring me here."

"Do you want the truth?"

She nodded.

He smirked, his eyes leering. "I was _bored_."

The wind stopped. The leaves ceased their crackling journey 'cross the crooked cement path. Time froze. She stared at the Irken who remained smirking with a conceited grin. Was he speaking the truth? He went to all of this trouble, creating this entire world in which she stood, breathless, because he was bored?

"You can't be serious."

He stared at her through the broken cup and smiled madly. "Perhaps the title of Mad Hatter was suiting for me after all." The cup was released and shattered to the ground. "Besides, I seem to recall your brother's final words to you before you fell asleep; after all, I _do_ like to mess with peoples' heads."

How he knew of their conversation was far from her knowledge. All she was aware of was the great fatigue overcoming her. Her eyes wandered up to the Irken in search of an answer. He remained, smiling.

"Well it would seem your time is up. At least, for now it is," Zim hummed. "A shame, really. I was having fun with our verbal play. Oh well. I can wait," his eyes closed to taunting slits, "till _next time_."

Her hand lingered up to her heavy head which fought to stay upright. Her legs wobbled, her body grew weak. Zim strolled over and held her in his hands, following her to the ground with ease when she collapsed. He minded her head as he rested her atop his lap. Stroking the hair away from her closing eyes, he bent down and whispered, "Sleep, my precious Alice, for you will have much to do very soon. Very, very soon…"

"Gaz. Gaz, wake up!"

"No, let me go!"

"Gaz, it's me!"

"What?" Her eyes opened and found Dib's hands intertwined with her battering arms. She pulled back and looked around. "I-I'm in my room?" Her hands fell to her nightgown and traced the pattern of skulls etched across. The dress was nowhere to be found. "But how?"

"Gaz, I don't understand. What are you talking about? You've been in your room all night!"

She had been messing through her hair to find the headband, but paused. Glancing at her brother slowly, she shook her head. "No, that's not right. I left. H-He took me. He took me away!"

"You need to calm down." He watched her take a slow, jagged breath before sighing. "Now start over. What happened to you last night? Who do you think took you away?"

"I don't think someone took me away, I _know_ they did. And I can't tell you where or who exactly, but I was gone. I know I was." She wiped the sweat from her brow and gasped. "Wait! That metal thing!"

Dib watched her dip her head over the side of the bed to scan past the bed skirt. "What are you talking about? What metal thing?"

Her hand swept over the dusty carpet. There was nothing there. She was sure she would find something, a trace of evidence proving her adventure out of the room. It lay bare.

Bare.

How was she to prove to her brother that she was not mad, mad as a Hatter? Surely he would not believe the ramblings of a tired young lady who had just awoken from the grips of a nightmare. But she knew it was simply not a dream. It was real. Too real. The tingling wound stinging her finger proved that it was real. Yet she knew she could not tell him of anything that had happened. He would brush it off as his sister messing with him. However, this was Dib. The same one who believed in ghosts and Big Foot and stalked an alien would surely believe her. Right? But first things first, he said she had been in her room all night. Before she would consider anything else, she was to go off of the evidence; off of the facts that actually made sense.

"You said I had been in my room all night."

"Yeah, you didn't move a muscle. I came in to check on you because it wasn't like you to fall asleep at three o'clock, especially right after school, but you were completely sacked. I even tried to nudge you awake, but you wouldn't wake up."

"So you saw me in my room? I didn't leave or anything?"

"Look, Gaz. You did not leave your room once. If you did, then I would have heard you. Our rooms are right across from each other and I didn't hear the door open once. Unless you were sleep walking and crawled through the window, I don't see any other way you _could_ have left."

She knew it was real. There was no way it could have been a dream. The burning reminder on her finger told her so. Yet she knew her brother would not buy her logic so she had to humor him.

Shrugging, she mumbled, "I guess it was just a dream. I'm probably just overtired from dealing with Miss Bitters and all of the homework she's been assigning us this week."

He nodded. "She does have that effect on people. Well you better get ready."

"Get ready?"

He laughed before realizing she was serious. "School, remember?"

She glanced at the clock. It was already seven twenty eight. She had less than a half hour to get ready. Db left her to get dressed to which she locked the door and walked over to the window overlooking the city. Traffic streamed up and down the street, the frustration and constant noise of honking bubbling to the top till it spilled over. She knew the feeling all too well.

Zim was responsible for it all and whether or not her brother believed her, she knew it was not a fantasy in her imagination. The rabbit, the doors, the drink, the flowers; all of it was real! But what of the book, the machine that had stabbed her? Is this why Zim had questioned her so fiercely throughout the week?

So many questions, yet only one could answer them.

And then she remembered what he had said before she left Wonderland. He said he could wait till "next time." Obviously she was going to be returning very soon. How soon, she did not know. So either she would confront him in Wonderland or in school. Either way, she was going to get to the bottom of it and make sure he did nothing further to disrupt the life she had grown accustomed to.

Yet she had to admit: it was a pleasing change from what she was used to. For once, she had not a single worry that someone would intervene with her peace. She knew that Dib could not open a door and lecture her of the "beings existing among humanity." Her father could not lecture her to smile more often, to find the beauty in life. The only other one there was Zim. Surprisingly, she did not mind his presence. Yes he could be annoying, but he was also different; different from the rest of the world. He did not belong and neither did she. In a twisted way, that fact made her feel as though she finally did belong with someone. Someone and not somewhere.

Though the whole ordeal was all too twisted to think of the treasures that could come of this. The uncertainty outweighed the dreams.

"Zim," Gaz groaned. "You may like to mess with peoples' heads, but you forgot one thing." She slid the curtains closed and her voice hissed, "So do I."

**A/N**

**Oh Zim. You made Gaz mad. You better run!**

**I hope you liked it! Chapter 6 will be up soon!**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N**

**I love this chapter. Mostly because of the way Gaz acts. Read on to find out… **

The brush clawed through her tangled hair. It latched hold onto a knot and refused to let go. The harder she tugged, the more her hair hissed in refusal to budge. It got to the point where she came close to reaching for a pair of scissors. Luckily Dib knocked on the door just as she was about to snip it off.

She did not know why it was so hard getting ready this morning. Usually she slipped on her dress, ran a comb through her hair, seized her breakfast off the counter, and was headed out the door.

Today played out entirely different. Her hair refused to detangle. Her dress was wrinkled and unpleasing to her eyes. The brand of bagel she had got especially for breakfast did not taste as good as it usually did. Why was everything so much harder this morning?

Her brother was irritated with his sister's sluggish pace. Usually she was out the door walking to school by the time he got out of the shower. It was unlike her to be so delayed.

Her fingers flipped through her dresses, scanning each one thoroughly. Yet no matter which one she removed from the closet, she found a flaw in one way or another. It was too wrinkled. There was a blaring stain that only her eyes could see. The color was fading. Everything was all wrong!

Perhaps it was because of the incident with Zim. After all, she _had_ been dragged there and back from Wonderland. It is not every day that a teenager her age could claim such a statement.

"Gaz, will you please hurry up! If we don't leave now, we'll never make it to school on time!"

"Meet me outside," she hollered through the closed door. "I'll be right there."

She found him standing on the front porch, foot tapping and fingers drumming impatiently. He released a clogged up breath of air in exasperated relief. "I thought you would never come," he lectured. "Come on, let's go."

On the way to school, he noted her silence. Sure Gaz never talked to him on the way to school; she usually drowned her free time in the virtual world of vampire piggy slayers. But this was just uncomfortable. The lack of game console in her hands and the distant stare in her eyes did nothing to soothe his nerves.

Why was she acting so peculiar? It was ever since he found her this morning, screaming from her nightmare. Gaz was not known to have nightmares. Her usual dreams were scary enough to be counted as nightmares from the perspective of any other average person, yet it was simply just another dream to her. If she labeled it as a "nightmare", he knew it had to be bad.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked lowly.

She shrugged. "I'm fine."

"Because if you're not—"

"I said I'm fine," she snapped. She had no intentions of her voice coming out so sharp, but it did seem to quiet him and that is all she wanted. She needed to think. She needed peace. Whatever Zim had said or done really affected her and she had no clue as to why. But she did not like it. Not one bit.

"Listen, it's okay if your nightmare freaked you out. A lot of people have nightmares that really disturb them."

"I'm not worried about the dream, Dib," she replied. "I just want to be left alone."

He shrugged. "Okay. But if you need someone to talk to, I'm here for you."

She peered up at him through her violet bangs. She had to give him credit on that; he was always there for her no matter what she said or did. He was a typical big brother: overprotective and a bit in your business, but he was loyal. She just could not bring herself to question him about what she went through. It was likely that he would believe her knowing his past of paranormal stalking, yet she felt as though she would be succumbing into the trap of his beliefs; the very ones she ridiculed just days earlier.

Her mouth opened in a mock attempt to speak, but stopped for standing at the school entrance was Zim. Dib saw the dramatic change in her behavior, from the dilating of her pupils down to her clenched, quivering fists. He called her name in concern, yet she did not hear. She walked over to the alien in a daze, her footing as precise as though they were planned. Once Zim saw her too, he smiled. Not a friendly smile. Not a mocking smile. A smile that said, "Finally, you have arrived."

His eyes flickered behind her and she realized that he recognized the presence of her brother. A stern glare back at her and Gaz knew that he would not speak without Dib leaving. He gestured coarsely with his head, his expression saying, "Rid me of your brother, then I will speak."

So she faced her brother and gave a pitiful excuse that he should not have bought, in all honesty. She needed to stretch her legs a bit more before she entered the prison of school. She would be only but a moment. Meet her in there, Dib. This would not take long.

With arms folded smugly, Zim relaxed against the crumbling brick wall of the school. He eyed her fiercely as she approached. He knew why she had come. Of course she would go to school, yet he could tell she had been searching him out from a mile away. From the way her eyes darted with uncertainty to the troubled, quickened pace of her legs, he knew he had been on her mind for quite some time.

And that was just the way he liked it.

"I'm flattered, little Gaz," he began. "You came all this way just to speak with me? An honor, truly an honor." His lips pulled back with a purr and his eyes focused on her sternly. "What can I do for you?"

"You can cut the nonsense and tell me what you are up to." She was not dwelling on the possibility of falling victim to his games. She wanted out, right now.

"Oh, there is no nonsense, Gaz. I can assure you of that. No, it's quite the opposite actually." He stared down at his claws, examining them haughtily.

"Stop messing around and get to the point. I'm sick of all the riddles and fancy tricks. I just want to know how to end it." She folded her arms.

He glared up at her and stepped forward. She had not realized how much he had grown in the past years. She should have noticed in Wonderland when he dragged her to the top of the cliff, but her mind was a little preoccupied with more _important matters_. He stared down at her, his eyes in threatening slits. "Don't tell me you still think that was all a dream?"

"I just want you to stop messing with me," she replied.

"The game is far from over," he said, bending down to her level. He loved the way she stared straight into his eyes. In an odd way, it delighted him. "But you can handle it. You're strong."

He was not going to let her out of this. All that was left to do was play along. She loathed the idea of submitting to such an absurd idea that Wonderland could exist, but what other explanation was there? The only thing to ask now was, "Why me?"

"Who else would I chose to play out Alice's heroic role and complete the story?" He stepped behind her and curled his claws through her hair. "You are the missing piece, Gaz. You thought it would be easy to go through the story, so prove it. I want to see you encounter the unknown and face the dreams that you thought to be fake."

She relaxed into his grip. No one else was around. Her peers were long gone as they had already gone into the school building. It was only her, him, and the clouds gathered above. Was it because she was exhausted by the thought of going through it all that she trusted him enough to draw near to him? Perhaps. No one else would be there for her.

"How am I supposed to do it all?" she groaned.

"I will be there to assist you when you get lost," he grinned. "Though I may be mad, you may grow to find my company very appealing."

She did not like the way his eyes leered down in derision. He was neither angry nor scornful, yet his nature had developed a natural knack to belittle his peers in hopes of sparking a competition; a competition he had entered her in without her permission.

"I will explain more as you progress through the story," he said, moving away from her. "Until then, every night when you go to sleep, expect to enter Wonderland." He saw her eyes fall down to her hand where they remained on the puncture wound. "And as for your wound, that plays a part in all of this too. You see, just before you came home from school, I placed a device in your room. Whenever you reached your hand near the machine, it jabbed you and injected a serum into your body that acts as a sedative and a door."

She rubbed her hand thoughtfully. "A door?"

"How else would you go to Wonderland?" He smiled and took her hand, walking backwards towards the school. "Now shall we go to class?"

She pulled her hand away. "I'll go along with it, for now. But once this is over, I'll make sure you never get the chance to place me in the middle of your games again."

"Why, Gaz," he smirked, "that's where you are wrong." His voice chuckled darkly and whispered, "Perhaps you have been a pawn in a game all along."

**A/N**

**I love how she is so precise with her clothes and hair and does not even know why. Perhaps Zim has affected her in more ways than one ;). I know the story may seem slow, but don't worry. Next time she returns to Wonderland, you will be seeing many other characters who I believe play a perfect role for their characters.**

**Until then, enjoy reading X)**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N**

**Chapter 7, signed, sealed, and delivered ^-^**

**Enjoy!**

So this was it. Zim had set her destiny and she was forced to completely surrender her free will to his plans. No warning, no heads up, it just happened.

She was only halfway through the day and already she wanted nothing more than to leave. If she was to go to Wonderland that night, she had much planning to do.

But what does one bring to Wonderland? It wasn't exactly a topic that she could browse the internet or local library for. Instead she was to rely on her wits and common sense. Though, how much common sense could one have on something so uncanny?

First things first, she had to sort through the questions she had that had actually managed to obtain answers from the quirky alien. Where was she going? To Wonderland. When was she to arrive? Sometime tonight or whenever she fell asleep; whichever came first. Who would be there? Zim and she assumed the other characters from the novel. What else did she know?

"Not much," she mumbled sourly.

"Miss Membrane!" the teacher snapped. "Are you paying attention?"

She sighed and stated, "Yes."

"Then I suppose you would not mind telling the class the answer." The lady crossed her arms in a dignified, mocking manner. She figured she had Gaz cornered, that she would soon fall to the floor pleading for forgiveness for she was not paying attention and felt terrible for her vicious crime as a student.

Oh, how she was wrong.

"Quite frankly, I don't care how long it will take Train B to catch up with Train A. When in my life will I ever use this type of math? Unless my job requires it, I see no reason to listen to this nonsense. But if you insist on hearing the answer even though you have the answer right in your grade book, then fine. If Train A leaves the station going sixty miles per hour and Train B leaves one hour later going eighty-five miles per hour, then it will take Train B three point four hours to catch up with Train A." She stood and collected her books. "And I don't feel like explaining the work, but if you must see it then look in your book. Will you excuse me?" She did not wait for an answer and strolled out of the classroom just as the lunch bell was ringing. The door slid shut on the speechless classroom, the teacher's papers and books falling from her hands.

Usually she did not speak out so irrationally against her teachers. She paid no mind to her peers or the school faculty. She usually stuck to the shadows where everyone left her alone. And the chances were likely that her father would be receiving a phone call from the principle speaking of her "inappropriate behavior", but she would deal with that later.

Zim had made her quite irritable. She did not like the feeling within she was forced to face once near him. She wanted to go home, though she remained on the premises of the school. Her peers had long strayed to the lunch room and were jumbled in a bustling heap. She remained alone.

Seated on the steps out front, her head rested in her hands. She did not notice anyone approaching until a shadow flooded over her.

"I've been looking everywhere for you until someone said they saw you leave." Dib said. "What are you doing out here?"

"Avoiding life," she mumbled. He raised his eyebrows, worried, but she spoke before he could question her. "Do you know if dad is coming home tonight?"

"I doubt it," he shrugged. "He never comes home from the lab except on family night. Why?"

"I was just wondering." In reality, she wanted to make sure the coast was clear. That way, she could plan her survival in Wonderland properly…

Eight o'clock had arrived. Dib noted his sister's peculiar behavior as she disappeared upstairs directly after school. The door slammed and he heard the _click_ of her lock. She knew him all too well for not even an hour later, he crawled up the stairs and hollered through the door, "I'm going to go to the store. You need anything?"

Whenever Gaz acted oddly, it usually meant she wanted to be left alone. Well she always wanted to be alone, but it was simply dangerous to mess with her when she was like this. So he was going to plant himself as far away as possible, if not for her likings then for his safety.

"Would you mind picking up the new Game Slave 4? It came out two days ago and I haven't gotten the chance to go to the mall yet." There was no Game Slave 4. It had not yet been released. And it was not going to be out for another four months. As I said, she knew her brother too well…

"I would but I don't think it's come out yet."

The door creaked open and her eyes pierced him through the sliver of open door. "Am I ever wrong when it comes to Games Slaves?"

"Well, no. But—"

"Then I am not wrong this time. Here," she said, stuffing money into his hands. "This should cover it." She closed the door and waited for him to leave. His footsteps faded down the stairs and out the door entirely. The front door shut and she was in the clear. Opening her door slowly, she peaked out just to make sure. No one was home.

Perfect.

Next stop: Professor Membrane's room. The door stood, a towering slate of pure metal. Bars and latches crisscrossed over it with a single number pad ablaze with neon lighting. Her fingers danced across as she entered the security code. A hissing whirr coughed from the mechanisms and the door screeched open. Only one other time had she been in her own father's room. It was a vague memory of devices and frames containing his prized toast. His likings had not changed, she found, as she stepped within and walked past the stale bits of bread hanging within golden, shining borders.

A vault larger than a car stood waiting opposite of the door, past his desk and behind a row of bookshelves. There was no bed in his room. As Dib had said earlier, he never came home from the lab except on family night. A platform rested before the safe, a pressurized one at that. When she stepped atop, it signaled that someone had arrived and in a robotic, monotonous slur, droned, "Please enter the password."

"Password?" She glanced around the room. "Hmm…If I was dad, what would my password be?" It took her no time at all to figure it out. She entered "Super Toast."

"Access granted."

"You never change dad."

Inside, flashlights, weapons, batteries, medical packs, and backpacks filled to the brim with supplies littered the walls. A constant fear for her dad was that someone would invade their home in search of the formula for super toast. Never before had she been so grateful for his ludicrous terrors.

A backpack slung over her shoulder, flashlights and matches stuffed within, and other various odds and ends and she was finished by eight thirty eight.

Just as she had planned.

She sealed the vault, wiped away any finger prints, and slid his bedroom door shut after replacing the security camera tape with that of a blank, uneventful recording.

She had just stepped into her room when an overwhelming fatigue consumed her mind. Apparently Zim's sedative worked sooner then she thought. She stammered to the bed where she collapsed, just barely scraping up and beneath the blankets. With the backpack still hanging from her shoulders, she rolled to her side and stared out the window.

All that was left was to wait for Wonderland.

**A/N**

**I just had to add the part where Gaz answers the math question XD. I don't know about you, but those questions about "if Train A leaves the station at…" always got on my nerves. I guess Gaz got fed up with it too =D. **

**I know someone will probably say, "She wouldn't act like that! She would just ignore the teacher or something." Maybe, but I think this version was ten times funnier ^-^**

**Chapter 8 will be here soon!**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N**

**Oh, poor Gaz. Her worst nightmare is about to be realized XD. **

Her mind was forced through a splash of time that twirled and whirled. Colors and sounds floated everywhere and she was falling, falling. Her body hit the ground, yet it took a moment for her spirit to catch up. When it did, she grinned to herself before opening her eyes. Zim may have left her with no other options before, but this time was to be different. She peeled her eyelids back and was startled to see that she was not alone.

"Dib?" she breathed, disbelieving. "Zim dragged you here, too?"

He blinked his confusion back and tilted his head. "Dib?" he questioned. "What is a Dib?"

She gasped when another Dib, a clone stepped forward. They both wore black and white striped shirts that reminded her of prison clothes. Brown overalls with red straps squeezing his shoulders completed the outfit.

Answering the first Dib's question, the other Dib answered, "I believe a Dib is one of those creatures with a wahogin blarf at the end of its tail."

"No, no," the other replied. "That is a _Dorb_."

"Oh, yeah." The second one nodded.

"Okay," Gaz said, backing away. "I don't know what's going on. I know the last time I was in Wonderland it wasn't a dream, but this time it must be! There is no way there are two Dibs!" Wonderland was now twisting into a nightmare. Two Dibs? What could be worse?

"Well I don't see why you keep calling us a Dib for," the first one chirped, "but my name is Tweedledee and he is Tweedledum."

"And contrary, I am Tweedledum and he is Tweedledee," Tweedledum pointed out.

"It does not matter what order they are in," Tweedledee scolded.

"Obviously it did since you made your name first!" the other retorted.

They collapsed to the ground as they rolled about, jabbing at the others head. Gaz tore a strip of branch off from a plant, a red fog dusting off, and jabbed them both in the sides. When she had their attention, she threw the limb down and folded her arms.

"Listen, I need to find Zim. He said—" She peered about and patted her back to find nothing "Where is my backpack?"

The twin Dibs shrugged innocently. "When you arrived, you were carrying nothing," they both said.

She moved her hair away as she kneeled over and scanned beneath a bed of mushrooms. Pulling leaves and roots away, she muttered, "This is just great. First I'm stuck in Wonderland with Dumb and Dumber—"

"Tweedledee and Tweedledum," they reminded her.

"—and now I can't even find my backpack." She threw her arms up at the sky and yelled, "Could you make this anymore difficult?"

"Who is she talking to?"Tweedledum whimpered, frightened that the girl had possibly gone mad.

"I haven't the slightest clue," Tweedledee hummed. "Ah! I bet she is trying to contact him!"

"Oh, yes! Of course!" his twin clapped.

"I was talking to Zim," Gaz said. She saw the blank, unknowing stare and frowned. "I mean the Mad Hatter."

"You are looking for the Hatter? We can take you to him!"

"Please do," she groaned. She certainly was not going anywhere else without Zim's help. So for the next hour she wandered Wonderland, the Tweedledibs leading the way. However she began to question their motives when they stopped, gazed about uncertainly, and appeared to sing a rhyme beneath their breath. When the chance arrived to question what they were doing, they stomped their feet jubilantly as though finding the answer they desired, and continued on their way, down another twisting road which looked less certain than the last. It was not until they arrived at a cliff, a fork in the road with a sign pointing either way that she stopped them.

"I appreciate you leading the way to the Hatter, but are you sure you know where you are going?"

They faced one another, shocked and guilty. At once, they broke down and tears filled their eyes. Grasping her feet, they pleaded, "Please, Alice, forgive us! We did not mean to lead you astray. We were quite certain of the way at first, but now—"

"My name is not Alice," she interrupted. "It's Gaz and are you saying we're lost?"

They nodded shamefacedly before pointing at the other. "It was his fault!"

"I guess Dib doesn't change even in Wonderland," she huffed. She sighed and gathered herself once more, trying her best to obtain and hold fast to her patience. "Do you know where we could get assistance from?"

"We could take you to him!" Tweedledum sang.

"That's who I am trying to get to right now, remember? I said I need to talk to the Mad Hatter to—"

"The Mad Hatter? Oh, silly girl! When we said you were trying to contact "him", we did not mean the Hatter. We were speaking of the Cheshire Dog!"

She paused. "The what?"

"Come! The Cheshire Dog can usually be found within the branches of Red Heart Forest!"

She was quite certain it was the Cheshire _Cat_, but took their word for it, no matter how ludicrous it had been so far.

She was led down a winding path that had staircases leading up and stairs leading back down. It protruded up in the air and then dipped back down into valleys. It was all very dizzying. When she took control of her head, she clutched the headache inevitable to come after the twirling journey. Just as they had said, Tweedledee and Tweedledum had brought her to a forest littered with towering trees and looping branches.

"The key is to look for him not," Tweedledee whispered.

"Look for him not?" Gaz asked.

He nodded. "If you look for him so, then he will never appear. But if you look for him _not_, then he will appear.

"Harmless logic," her sarcastic remark puffed.

But it would seem they were right as they stepped over uprooted limbs diving out of the ground and made their way through the forest until a faint cackle was heard. She turned and squinted to correct her vision for all she saw was a smile; a bright, grinning smile. It was not her vision though, and next came a pair of blinking eyes.

"Cheshire?" she wondered. A green dog appeared, the smile blinking at her with delight. "Gir?" It was Gir. I suppose when the Tweedles had spoken of the Cheshire Dog, they spoke correctly.

His tail wagged slowly, dreamily. "Has Alice lost her way?" he said distractedly. It would appear that he, too, was mad. But perhaps Gir had been mad all along.

"Yes," she admitted. "I would like to see Zim."

"Zim? I know not of a Zim in this realm."

She scoffed. "Fine. I need to see the Mad Hatter." It was going to take a while before she was acquainted to calling him such a name.

"If you wish to see the Hatter, first you must pass a test."

"What?" she exclaimed.

"You must travel to the Den of Woe, up the Mountain of Dreams and Cotton, and then through the Valley of Tickling Frogs. Only if you come back alive will you gain access to seeing the Hatter."

She was dumbfounded. It was not every day that one could leave Gaz speechless. The green dog chortled and swam off of the branch, floating through the air.

"I joke with you, Alice. None of this must you prevail. Come, I will bring you to the Hatter."

Gir spoke in clear, unfazed sentences. Was it possible that these were not the characters of her life but truly the characters of the story? It certainly seemed more logical than to think of Gir having reason to his thoughts.

She followed his drifting body while Tweedledee and Tweedledum waddled along closely. They stepped out of the forest and into a field, a plain stretching out. A table rested at the end of the path with broken plates and cups scattered across. Clocks were clattered about; some ticking, others not. In the seat at the very end, beneath the brim of a very large hat, eyes twinkled amusingly.

"My dear Alice," Zim hummed. "I had feared for but a moment that you would not show. Come. Would you care to join me for a spot of tea?"

**A/N**

**What is a worse nightmare than two Dibs? Poor Gaz. And she thought it was hard dealing with just one ^-^**

**Oh Zim. Gaz probably has a love hate relationship with him right now, what for the tugging and pulling her about. But she may grow to like him (wink wink, nudge, nudge) XD **

**Hope you liked it! Chapter 9 will be up soon and boy is Gaz in for a real loop in the story ;D**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N**

**Haha I love this chapter because Zim is so "mad" throughout it. I have to say, the Mad Hatter certainly suits his character ;)**

**Enjoy!**

Tweedledee and Tweedledum crawled into their chairs at the muddled table while Cheshire hopped onto the Hatter's lap. His tail wagged with delight and Zim stroked his head tenderly. He felt Gaz watching him and explained with a smile, "Cheshire is my eyes whenever I am not around. He tells me of the occurrences when I fail to see so myself." He pointed with his shattered cup at a chair. "Sit."

She did, remaining silent as her eyes focused in on him the entire time. Tweedledee and Tweedledum served themselves and dropped cubes of sugar within their murky tea. Droplets splashed out onto the embroidered table cloth. She gently selected a spoon off of the wrinkled napkin before setting it back down and gazing up at the Irken.

"You look like you are tearing at the seams with questions, Alice," he mused. "That is why you have come here, am I right?"

"My name is Gaz so please call me that—"

"—In Wonderland, you will be known as Alice," he stated. His eyes challenged hers; she looked away. No matter how hard it was to fight the urge to leave right then and there, she knew if she did not let him win this, he would not speak with her. "So what are your questions?"

"I want to know what happened to my stuff."

"Your stuff?"

"I brought a backpack full of equipment that really would have helped, but it is no use to me if it disappears before I even have the chance to wake up."

"My dear, I hope you are not accusing me of stealing your belongings." He fingered a sliver of shortbread and tickled Cheshire's nose with the end before placing it within his pleading paws. "I suppose I should have mentioned this before."

"Mentioned what?" _Oh, great_, her mind groaned. _Another catch to this place._

"You cannot bring anything with you to this realm. Anything you attempt to bring from Earth will simply remain behind while you leave. It is no use establishing the aid of senseless objects for they will be of no use to you. After all, how much use is an item when in this reality, it does not exist?"

Her shoulders slumped. "Are you saying that all you've given me to survive in this forsaken place is your two cents and the help of my brother and your robot?"

He waggled his finger. "That is where you are wrong." He pointed at the Tweedledibs. "They are not your brother. They have no relation to you whatsoever. And him," he pointed at Cheshire, "he is not Gir, the robot disguised as a little green dog. They are Tweedledee and Tweedledum and he is Cheshire Dog."

"I-I don't understand," she admitted. "You're telling me that they aren't who I think they are, but they happen to looking exactly identical to the ones I know?"

He dipped a crooked spoon in and out of the tea, fishing out a ticking clock. He sniggered wildly and then his face dropped back into that of a serious muse. "They may look like them, but they are not the ones you are familiar with. As a matter of fact, they only look that way for you."

Cheshire floated over and handed her a cup, pouring black tea to the brim when she grabbed it. She shook her head. "What do you mean?"

"I made them look that way so that you would be more comfortable. It would not be good for your mental health if you were to go through all of this with complete, utter strangers, now would it?"

"…My…my mental health…?"

His eyes seemed to flicker and he set down the cup and allowed Cheshire to drift off of his lap. Walking over, he stood behind her and whispered in her ear, "We are all a little mad here." She glanced up, backing away on instinct. "In case you haven't realized," he chortled, "I am not all here myself."

"I can believe that," she muttered.

He slammed his hand on the table, causing the glass to vibrate. Tweedledee and Tweedledum covered their eyes; "see no evil" riding their mind. The Hatter bent down near her and titled his head. "Why did you come back?"

"I didn't have any choice, you said so yourself. What else could I do?" Gaz exclaimed.

"You have been going along with the ride instead of fighting it. Why is that?"

She shrugged. "Why fight the inevitable?"

He smiled a toothy, maddening grin and rose. "Just let me say this, Alice, you choose your own destiny; you sealed the mark of coming here."

She twisted in her chair to face him. "How do you figure that?"

"Do you think I would have gone through all of this trouble of creating this world and arguing with you if you were just like every other person?" His claws wrapped like spider legs around her shoulders. "I chose you _because_ you were different. All of those meaningless questions I attacked you with day in and day out were not so meaningless after all. I was judging you according to the answers you gave and let me say, my dear, you gave just the answers I wanted to hear."

"But those answers caused me to end up here," she sighed. "If I would have lied and answered like any other girl, I would be at home _reading_ the novel instead of _living_ it."

He frowned. "Do you really want to hide behind the cover of a book, thinking of what it would be like to live this fantasy?" He held her hands and raised her up. "Because quite frankly, I feel that you are making the book far more interesting than even Alice herself could, _Gaz_."

He had called her by her name and she had never been so relieved to hear it before. Perhaps there was more to this story than she thought. Yet she wondered, "How much time do I have left before I pass out and return home again?"

He squinted, but lifted his hat and retrieved a metal bulb from within. A blue clock illuminated Irken letters and his eyes darted across as he read. "You only have a few moments before you return."

"How am I supposed to accomplish anything here if I am only here for a few hours?"

"Is that a complaint?" he smirked.

"Hardly," she groaned. She could not bring herself to ask for more time in Wonderland, even if it did mean that she would get done sooner. So the catches of the place? She could bring no earthly objects with her, her time was limited in the realm, and though the characters resembled her family or people she knew, they were not them. Easy enough."Is there anything else I need to know before—" She gasped and clung to her head. The image of everything around her fell into a blurring whirlpool of colors.

Zim frowned and glanced down at the countdown. "Is it time already?" She fainted and fell into his arms. He managed to hold her up and shook his head. "I guess it is."

Her eyes were closed, yet she could see colors and objects rushing past her as though she were falling down a great hole. This is what happened the last time she was returning to Earth.

Yet something was different.

She waited to land in her bed, awaited the dry thrash of the air forcefully leaving her lungs, but it did not come. There was no cottony embrace from the greeting of her blankets. The light around her did not dim as though she had returned to her darkened room. No, it all stayed the same. A little too much the same.

When she opened her eyes, her mouth dropped ever so slightly to find Zim, or should I say the Mad Hatter peering down at her. With no answer herself, the Hatter shook his head.

"I'm afraid I have some bad news, Alice."

He had returned to calling her Alice. With a choking question, she begged to ask just what the news was.

He sighed. "You're stuck in Wonderland."

**A/N**

**Okay, Zim, if I were you I would run because Gaz is going to be fiery mad! She's stuck in Wonderland and you're the only stress ball around XD**

**Chapter 10 will be up shortly!**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N**

**Well if Zim isn't dead by now, he will be soon. We've got an angry Gaz on our hands, I repeat, an Angry Gaz! All members report to their battle stations! **

**Enjoy! **

Never before had Zim seen the violet girl move as quickly as she did the moment he told her she was stuck, stuck in Wonderland. She shoved his comforting hands away, stood, and staggered backwards, all the while shaking her head. "I-I don't understand. What do you mean stuck?"

He brushed his hat to the side when he cupped his forehead in preparation. "Just what I said. You cannot return to Earth. At least, not yet."

"But how? How did this happen?"

A soft static cried out from the object he had dug out of his hat. The screen that had once displayed neon blue lettering now flashed a red warning across. The lights bounced off of her face like that of a siren, an ambulance arriving at the devastation.

"The object in your room, just beneath your bed, that is what allowed you to come into Wonderland in the first place. Something must have happened to it."

She shoved his hand down, removing the device from his view and replacing her twisted, bitter scowl in its absence. "Like what?"

He tapped a few buttons and a fuzzy image was displayed just before cutting off. "Like that." He whistled while Gaz froze. "I suppose your brother can cause you trouble even when you are not around." Just as Zim had said, the machine managed to portray the recording of its last sight before it was disturbed; Dib had mistakenly kicked the device, which was just barely scraping the edging of the bed skirt, and had managed to dislodge something within.

She noticed that he had been calling her name just before the transmission was cut. "He was looking for me," she thought aloud.

"Well back at home, you are nowhere to be found." The look of confusion crossing her face led him to explain further, "Before my creation was damaged, your body was still back on Earth, sleeping. That is why when you left for Wonderland the first time and woke to ask Dib what had happened, he saw nothing but you fast asleep in your room. To him, you had never left. True you were here with me, but all he saw was that of you sleeping peacefully. Now that this has happened, you are fully within Wonderland, your spirit and body. He will begin to wonder where you are because to him, you have vanished."

"I have to get back," she breathed. He strolled about carelessly, hands wrapped behind his back.

"I had intended on only keeping you here for a short period of time," he sighed, "but it would seem that the circumstances have changed without my saying so, or yours at that."

"The circumstances have changed? That is all you can say?"

"Well originally, the machine was designed to inject the serum into your body which would then allow you to go to Wonderland, but it also acted as the door entirely. But since Dib has jammed a main processor within the device, it has malfunctioned and no longer allows me to control it. Before, I could send you back at will. Now I can do nothing."

"Oh, no. You can do something." Her eyes were ablaze with such an insane amount of anger that he feared for the stability of the girl's mental health. "You can go through everything that you've put me through."

He backed away as she inched dangerously closer. Her footsteps pounded the helpless plants crying from the ground, their innards bursting out the sides. He frowned, his claws tapping against one another timidly.

"Now because of you, I am stuck in this messed up world! But what's your explanation? The circumstances have changed? Oh, well forgive me for passing up that excuse!" She pinned him against a tree and lifted a shaky finger up to his eyes. "You're going to pay for this, Zim. If I'm stuck here, then that means you're stuck with me."

"I believe you mean to call me Hatter," he corrected. She growled and his fear dispersed. "Really now, Gaz, what can you do to me?"

"You want to see?"

He grabbed her wrists and twisted her around, her back now hitting the tree. He bent down and hissed, "You seem to forget without me, you are stuck. And not just temporarily like you are now. You will be trapped here forever. So I would reconsider my plans if I were you."

She seized her hands away and, rubbing the flaming skin, asked, "Temporarily? How can you get us out of here? You saw what Dib did to the machine. Without it, we're stuck. You said so yourself."

"I said that it had changed my plans, not shattered them. We will simply go through with the original, intended plan."

"Which is?"

His eyes smirked. "You must finish this story."

She shook her head. "I'm not doing that."

"Then I suppose you are stuck here, aren't you?"

"You can't be serious." But his eyes told her he was. "Okay, so then what? What is the story? I don't even know where to go next."

"You read the novel, did you not? Just follow that. And you act as though you will go through this alone. That is where you are wrong, my dear. You have me."

"Oh, joy," she mocked.

"Unless you want me to abandon you and leave you with the Tweedledibs?" He glanced back at the table where the twins chortled, bouncing sugar cubes off of the other's nose. Cheshire had long fallen asleep in air.

Gaz frowned.

"So if I do this, if I finish this story, then I can go home?"

The Hatter nodded. "Like nothing ever happened."

"And you are sure this wasn't planned on your part?"

"How could I have figured that your brother would have kicked the machine, dislodging a cable within and leaving us stranded without another option?"

She folded her arms. "Then how did you program the machine ahead of time to have the ability to portray the rest of the story if you hadn't planned on me staying but for the beginning?"

"To be quite honest, at the very beginning I had wanted you to go through the whole story with me."

He strolled away from the table and she followed. "With you?"

"Who else? I was the creator of this realm, wasn't I?"

"But you seem so determined to get me and only me here."

They made their way into the forest.

He shrugged loosely, picking a flower from the ground. "Perhaps I wished to be alone with you. Here. Have this." He was about to hand her the flower when he pulled it back. "Oh, but that would be too cliché for my dear little Gaz, wouldn't it?" The flower was released and drifted to the ground. She eyed it before glancing up at him. "You interest me, greatly. I must admit, though this has been an unfortunate turn of events for you, I am thoroughly pleased with the outcome."

She stepped over to him casually, glaring at the ground. "And what outcome is that?"

"Being that much closer to you," his smile suggested.

Her face fell and she caught only a glimpse of his face as he turned and walked away tauntingly. When his back was turned, his face away from hers, only then did she pick up the flower.

**A/N**

**Do I sense love in the air? As much as Gaz would hate to admit it, I think she likes being stuck in Wonderland with Zim. It certainly does act as an odd first date though O.O**

**I have all of the characters picked out for the ones coming your way and let me just say, they are the perfect choices! In a way, they each represent the real **_**Alice in Wonderland**_** characters perfectly, at least in my opinion they do. **

**Chapter 11 will be here soon! Wow, this story is going to be a lot longer than I had thought it to be. I hope you guys don't mind that lol! **


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N**

**Some action and suggestive Zagr in this chapter! Enjoy!**

Gaz, the Hatter, Tweedledee, Tweedledum and Cheshire had long evacuated the tea party and were just exiting the plain that stretched for miles beyond. It resembled a desert in the way that the dirt was barren and lacking any and all hydration, yet brought forth memories of a war's battle zone from the corpses scattered every which way. Nothing remained, save for the skeletons and broken bones, but it was enough to get the picture across. From the dusty swords to the broken spears, a great battle had taken place; and one victor had left the other side drowning in the bloodshed from its loss.

The Hatter stopped in a dipping valley that held a border of fuzzy shrubbery guarding the pit of sand. Facing the others, he said, "We shall rest here. Once morning arrives, we will continue and make our way to Her Majesty." He pointed at Tweedledee and Tweedledum. "You two, I want you to keep watch overnight." They nodded and scattered to their posts. "Cheshire?" The grinning dog drifted over and rubbed affectionately against him. "Would you gather food for the little lady?" he gestured to Gaz who frowned at the title. "Alice, come with me."

Zim hopped over dead branches clawing through the sand, reaching out for the sun, for life, yet passed away in the process. He offered his hand to Gaz as she stepped over the fallen trees. "Where are we going?"

He looked back at a group of limber trees. "To gather firewood, of course. Night is approaching. We must be swift."

"You act as though there is danger, but I do not see anything."

He swiveled around and stopped her dead in her tracks. His eyes closed to warning slits as he whispered, "Though you cannot see, they are there, watching. Mind your trust and watch your steps or both shall be your downfall." He raised a finger and his breath hissed, "Shh!"

He measured a tree with his hands and proceeded to cut it down with the metallic legs which protruded from his PAK. Gaz dusted away the sawdust spitting out from the hacking. "Who are 'they?'"

"The creatures of this realm; the henchmen of her."

"Her?"

The tree toppled over and thudded to the ground with a dry crack. He spun on his heal, tilting his head. "You have many questions. I suppose you should. I will explain later. Gather the wood and we shall leave."

He sliced the tree into thick, rolling logs. Gathering them up in his arms, one in his hat, he waited for her to pick up her share before departing.

She did not know what to think of his behavior. For once, Zim was generally frightened, but of what? A whisper of air scratched her shoulders and she faced the wilderness surrounding them. It was eyes watching her, or the light of the setting sun reflecting off of the various shriveled fruit which hung from drooping limbs. Zim was drawing away so she picked up the pace to keep up.

A crackle stopped her.

A roar called out and she turned in time to get thrown to the ground. She coughed for the air had been ripped from her lungs, but this did not stop her flailing arms which moved to shield her face. A beast with snowy-white, speckled fur stood atop of her trembling body. Foaming drool dripped from its jowls. She turned her face as its shattering snarl bellowed out. Its claw struck her in the arm and she screamed, the porcelain flesh tearing.

A flash of green and she watched as Zim tackled the mighty creature to the ground. With metallic legs protruding from his back, he landed a limb into the monsters eye. The monster cried out and clung to the blood that dripped loosely.

Gaz scooted back and examined Zim. Something was different. He had changed. The baby blue once seeping through his irises had taken on a vibrant, bloodthirsty crimson lust. He smiled brutally and met his match with the brute, his claws entangled in the knotted fur. He was pinned to the ground, but did not stay down long. His PAK took aim and shoved the daggered tip through the fiend's belly. It choked on the blood dripping from its mouth and tipped over slowly. The hollow, empty body thudded to the ground with a disturbing _thump_. He removed the leg when he was certain it lay dead.

Gaz panted, blood flowing from her wound down to the dry land. Zim crept over and grabbed her roughly by the arm. She stared at him and moved to pull away, yet his grip was too tight. She waited for the color to return to his eyes and once it did, his hold loosened. He blinked questionably before looking up at her. He staggered back and gulped, mumbling, "We must return to camp."

The firewood rolled across the ground and Gaz joined him as he ran two sticks together. His eyes were vacant, lost. She moved to touch his hand and he jumped. Burning a hole through the sand with his gaze, he muttered, "I am sorry."

"For saving my life?" her voice said smoothly.

"Did I hurt you?"

She lifted her arm into view and shrugged. "If you did, I couldn't feel it past whatever that thing was and what it did to me."

Her compassion did not soothe his guilt.

"Hatter, you didn't—"

"I lost control."

The dull sparks burst into flames and created a breathing fire. The light flickered through his eyes. "I suppose I am a little _too_ mad."

"Aren't all beings in this world mad?" she chuckled.

"Not as I. I went too far."

"You were protecting me."

"I shouldn't have grabbed you in such a way. There is no excuse." He fingered the dried blood flaking from the gash on her arm. "You have been hurt deeply. We must clean it before the infection spreads."

Her eyes followed him as he stood. "You have medicine with you?"

"Not the sort in a jar," he admitted. He turned and whistled. Cheshire appeared and grinned. With a brief explanation, they both turned and eyed Gaz. "Cheshire must clean the wound for you."

She saw his tongue dangle in preparation and she grimaced. "I think I'll pass."

"You must let him clean it. That beast is what is known as the Bandersnatch. If it is not cleaned properly, it will fester and putrefy. The only one who can clean such a wound is one who has the ability to vaporize at will. Unless you would prefer to find the Bandersnatch and ask it to clean it for you. I'm sure if you ask nicely, it would be glad to."

His face had dropped and no longer smiled the toothy grin she was used to. Zim was never serious so she figured it must be severe. She sighed and turned away, yet offered her arm in the air. Cheshire floated over while Zim took a seat behind her. His legs wrapped around her waist and he held Gaz's arm in the arm while Cheshire streamed his tongue across.

"You are doing marvelous, my dear."

"I'm getting my arm licked, not having a baby," she groaned.

Zim chuckled and nodded. "I suppose you are right."

The moon hanging above was brighter and bigger than the one she was used to seeing on Earth. When she looked close enough, she could make out a distinct smile on the surface of the glowing orb. She grew to feel homesick, something she would have never believed before leaving for Wonderland. Before she wanted nothing but peace and solitude. Now she wanted nothing more than to return to the familiarity of her home.

Cheshire finished and she glanced down to find her arm completely healed, save for the faded scars. He floated away and her head drooped to the ground. "Why did that thing attack me? You were obviously the greater of the threats, so why did it come after me?"

Zim frowned as though her words had burned him. Though, he still answered, "You are the greater threat, Alice. I may have fought the beast off, but you will be the one to fight the Great Battle."

"Great Battle?" She craned her neck to look at him for he was still seated against her back. When this dawned on her, she swiftly faced the ground. The fire did not hide her blush.

He laughed. "Come, there is much to explain."

**A/N**

**And finally, all will be explained in the next chapter. **

**Poor Zim. He feels bad for losing control, but I think it was sweet that he protected her ^-^ Oh, um, anyways…! I hope you liked it! Chapter 12 will be up soon!**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N**

**Chapter 12 has arrived! This is one of my favorites so far because of the raw emotion in it. I think it turned out pretty good. But I will let you be the judge of that ;). Enjoy!**

He said he would tell her the tale, the history of Wonderland but so far, he had spoken not a word as he burned a torch in the midst of the fire and led her into the shadows of the forest. She questioned his sanity, the image of the safety of their campsite fading. She kept by his side and threw her vision to the disfigured limbs of the weeping trees. Shadows crept and leapt from branch to branch; when she looked, the being was gone. A silent breeze riding on a fiery horse trampled her skin with its demented hooves.

She was about to speak and she knew not as to how he knew this, but before she had the chance to voice a single word, he grabbed her shoulders while holding a shushing finger to her lips. The icy metal of his thimbles silenced her immediately. He glanced at the trees behind her and blinked back down to her. "Do not look behind you," he warned. "No matter what you hear, no matter what you believe you see, do not look."

She heard a wicked cackle tickle her mind and fought to heed his warning. He saw her struggling and lured her closer, letting her go on first. Something snapped, a branch or a bone, and her footing ceased. A heavy breathing growled in delight from her fear. She closed her eyes and the Hatter caressed her shoulders as he said, "It is not real. It is only trying to frighten you. The end is near. You must go forth."

And she did.

She stepped out and stammered back as she eyed the shadowy overgrowth. Ghosts of memories floated through the air, writhing and knotting in ache.

"W-What was that place?" her voice mistakenly quivered in question.

"The locals call it the Forest of Doubt. I suppose they gave it a proper name as it does just that; it makes you doubt your sanity."

"Is sanity the foundation of Wonderland?" she huffed. "Why are we here anyways?"

"You need to see this."

"See what?"

"That."

She turned and all around, fallen soldiers were scattered. Swords pierced their ribs, spears jutted from their hearts, drought dearth fogged their lifeless eyes; death was snickering.

She knelt beside a soldier whose arms were still wrapped protectively around another.

"What happened here?" her voice said in a mere whisper compared to the roaring of the wind.

"The Red Queen happened," the Hatter scowled.

Life was foreign, unknown to the land and had been for some time. Even the dirt fell apart when she stepped across. "I need to know what she did," she said.

"Where to begin…" he thought aloud. "Many years ago, the queen at the time gave birth to two baby girls, Princess Mirana and Princess Iracebeth. Princess Mirana was pure, untainted. She was the very image of compassion. Her sister was not this way. Princess Iracebeth was cruel and only craved power. The mother of the two princesses foresaw their daughters' inevitable conflict and was about to take control of the situation so that Iracebeth could never obtain her dream of a dictatorship, when it happened."

"What?"

He clutched a branch and let his hand fall, crunching the bark and limb. It thudded to the ground. "She died." He took his hat off in respect as he gazed up at the sky. "Some say it was because of the heartbreak she felt when she knew of her daughter's evil. Others say that Iracebeth poisoned her because she knew her mother had plans to hinder her desires."

"What happened next?"

"The father of the two daughters had longed died and the kingdom had no other ruler but the princesses. Since Mirana was the oldest, she was rightfully crowned the queen. But her sister grew very jealous and very angry. Eventually she left the kingdom entirely and no one heard from her for years. Some thought her to be dead, yet the White Queen, that is what we call Mirana, knew that her sister would return. And she did."

"She did all of this?" Gaz faced the land of death.

"I wish I could say this is all she did," he grimaced. "All those years she had been gone, she formed a kingdom of her own. With thousands of soldiers under her command, she invaded the White Queen's kingdom and it fell. Many were killed in vain, trying to protect the land. This is only one of the bloody battles fought because of the name Iracebeth."

"Why doesn't anybody stand up against her?"

He shrugged. "They are afraid. Even if a handful of the locals could obtain a drop of courage to stand up to her, it would be no use. She would crush their resistance immediately and make them out as an example to any other who would dream up the idea to oppose her."

"There is no way to stop her? She doesn't have a main source of power that could be cut?"

"She does." He grabbed a branch and drew the shapes in the sand. "The Blood Diamond, Sapphire Spade, Ruby Heart, and Garnet Club. All of these jewels give her her power. But she only has three out of the four. She still needs the Blood Diamond. Once she has that, she will be unstoppable."

She glanced down at her lavender dress which floated atop the wind. She had a feeling she knew what he was to say, yet still asked, "How does this involve me?"

"You will be the one to free this land, Alice."

"Me?" she breathed incredulity. "How am I supposed to save the people if even they cannot defy her?"

"The White Queen said that there would be a savoir coming to the land soon and it is you. It has to be."

She turned right as a crack of thunder burst above. Rain stroked the bodies, as though whispering, "You're free." Blood poured in rivers down the crimson-soaked land. It dripped into the cracks like sprinkling teardrops. The bodies themselves vaporized, forming piles of nothing but dust and lifted up on the frosty breeze. A deafening moan arose from all, the warriors crying out their final drop of agony. She shielded her ears and innocence, her eyes squinting shut so that nothing could be seen. The mere idea, though, still remained.

"What's happening?" she shouted to the Hatter.

"Wonderland is sending them off. They can now rest in peace."

The snowy orbs formed by their spirits flew to the skies and the clouds parted for their new angels. When all was silent, the land died. The dark sun returned once more and the rain fell harder.

Her head twisted in each direction and her chest tightened. "How am I supposed to…?" she moaned. "I can't even…No...I can't…I can't do it!" Her mouth dried up and her breath clogged up in her choking throat. Without a warning, she took off running into the middle of the field.

"Alice!" the Hatter cried, following her. When he caught up with her, he grabbed hold of her shoulders and turned her so that she was facing him. "You _can_. You _can_ do this!"

"I'm only sixteen!" she shouted, the storm hissing along with her words. "Not even a week ago, I was sitting alone in the cafeteria, poking at my food while I wondered what it would be like to actually have a purpose. Then you suddenly come along and start talking to me and the first thing Dib can do is accuse you of using me. Maybe he was right. Maybe that is the only reason you talked to me. I don't know. But what I do know is that I am not ready for this! I'm still trying to learn how to cope with the people around me. Now you want me to save Wonderland? I can't!"

"Alice, you will. You can do it. I know you can—"

"My name is not Alice," she yelled. Burning tears dripped from her eyes as she whispered. "It's Gaz. I'm just Gaz."

He remained silent as he watched her smother the tears with her fingers. "Why do you doubt yourself so much? If I didn't believe in you then I wouldn't have mixed you up in this. I know you can do this. You don't know what you are capable of. I don't know why you think you cannot because—"

"Because you have the wrong girl."

She gathered her skirt and stepped over the puddles forming around them. She held her hands over her arms and shivered helplessly in the rain. He sloshed through the mud and wrapped his fingers around her shoulders.

"I'm afraid, Zim," she breathed.

She allowed him to spin her around while she wiped the fear from her face. "If someone would have told me that I would go through this, I would have said that they were mad."

"Mad as a Hatter…?" he smirked. She nodded and tried to laugh. He frowned. "I know you are scared, but please trust me when I say I will not let anything happen to you. I said I would be here to guide you, didn't I?"

"I don't believe in a knight in shining armor," she said. "You know that."

He sighed, glancing down, but lifted his arm to pluck something from her dress.

It was the flower and he smiled.

"Perhaps even you are not aware of what you believe in."

**A/N**

**Aw! So sweet!**

**Okay, I know the whole history of Wonderland was different from the original, but that's okay because this isn't **_**Alice in Wonderland**_**. It's **_**Gaz**_** in Wonderland ^-^**

**I hope you liked it! Chapter 13 will be up shortly!**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N**

…**Enjoy… ^-^**

They had returned to the campsite and sat in silence. Cheshire had gathered food indeed; she found small bird-like animals, poked onto sticks, cooked and roasted. Whenever she took her first bite, she tried to convince herself it was only chicken.

It certainly did not look like chicken.

Fruit was on the side, yet she had to be convinced it was safe to eat. After all, it was glowing. As far as she was concerned, fruit did not glow nor did it have chunks of glitter shoved into the crevices. After gulping down the foreign meal, she drenched her throat in the water found in a running stream that lined the forest.

Their dinner gone and eaten, Tweedledee and Tweedledum had fallen asleep with full bellies. Cheshire had faded from view, voicing that he would find his own bed. The Hatter fluffed his jacket and took shelter beneath a fallen tree. He laughed as he watched Gaz search the barren land for a comfortable spot.

"Comfort is seldom found in a place such as this," he reminded her.

"There's got to be something warmer and softer then the dirt," she groaned.

"There is." He spread the flaps of his jacket to the side where they rested on the ground and patted the fabric. "It's already booked for you and everything," he smiled.

She crossed her arms and smirked. Then her face fell. "You're serious?"

He nodded.

She did not reply, but instead shivered as a wind slashed across her body.

"If you do not hurry, you may get stuck frozen in that position," he chirped.

He was not going to let up and it was cold; one night wouldn't hurt. She paced over after much debate and awkwardly sat next to him. He claimed she would not get warm being that far away, and scooted her closer. For the next fifteen minutes, she struggled to keep herself sitting up. Finally his hands enclosed around her shoulders and pulled her back, resting her head on his shoulder.

She was close enough to hear him breathing.

He blinked dreamily as his eyes wandered up to the stars. A thimble rose and he traced the constellations with his finger. She found the rhythmic pattern hypnotizing and soon fell into a dazed trance. She hardly noticed when he faced her and remained staring. Only when his finger grazed her skin did she jump, startling him also.

"I'm just moving your hair," he assured her. He did as he said and slithered the hair from her face. It tickled her nose and lips and he laughed, watching her hand fly up to rid her skin of the itching frenzy.

A lone, yet brute of a gust of wind attacked the couple. Instinctively, the hand wrapped around her shoulder fell to her waist and pushed against her hips to glide her closer. She had the choice to bury her face in the flaps of his jackets to hide the blush or to deal with his snickering ridicule; she decided to hide. It did not help and he raised an eyebrow, amused.

"Comfortable?" his eyes smiled.

"I miss home," she admitted.

He frowned and turned away. "You'll be gone soon." Instead of saying she would be home soon, his voice stated more that she would be leaving soon. The gloom riding his statement ate at her, yet she was not sure why.

She leaned closer willingly and muttered, "Thank you."

"What?"

His eyes remained in a steady gaze, causing her to tilt her head down to avoid the contact of their faces touching. "You've been the only one here for me. Without you, I would be completely lost. I probably would have died tonight if it hadn't been for you. I really thought that Bander…Banner—"

"Bandersnatch," he assisted.

"Yeah," she smiled. "I really thought it was going to kill me. I just wanted to say," she hesitated, but craned her head into the cubby of his neck and laid an arm around his opposing shoulder. "Thanks."

He did not fight nor did he struggle to move her, so she stayed. It was certainly warmer, being that close to him. His fingers tickled the roots of her hair as he caressed down her violet mane. She was about to fall asleep when a breeze ran by and snatched his hat off of his head.

"Oh, um," he said, clearing his throat.

"Yeah," she mumbled, sitting up. She lay back down immediately and he stood on his knees, leaning over her to grab his hat which caught onto a root of the tree. She looked everywhere, anywhere except for at him. He was too close for her likings and she squirmed to move away. All it did was pin her beneath him even more.

She sighed, remaining still until he leaned back and adjusted the hat. He still sat on his palms and smiled down at her. He was about to move when he stopped. She looked him up and down.

"Hatter—"

He kissed her.

She gasped, her hands flattening against his chest. His back stiffened from the rejection he was prepared for, but it never occurred. She relaxed and let her hands massage down his chest to his stomach and back up. His lips parted and closed, parted and closed; his mind grew drunk from the taste his tongue was drinking.

Why was she doing this? Why was she letting _him_ do this? She wanted to fight. She wanted to run. Yet her body was craving more of him and was relentless as it drew him closer.

For once, the land did not seem cold. It was no longer dark. The steady rain that had come and doused the fire was no threat; but when did the rain come? She could not recall.

He pulled back, eyes wide as he gasped. She froze and fell into a daze. He wiped the rain from his face with a sleeve and began his work of drying her. His sleeve ran smoothly across her face and his eyes remained on her. "I'm sorry," his voice whispered.

She frowned and looked away. She was afraid of this.

He regretted her.

He rejected her?

Why did his touch have to be so tender? Why was she hurt? She cared not for others and Zim was no different. Yet altogether, he was foreign in her world. Not because of the obvious distinctive qualities, but because he was actually able to get in; and she let him in.

She found his claws guiding her face back to his.

"You did not let me finish," he said, his eyes dancing. "I was going to say that you were probably going to kill me for that, but I would do it again." And he did kiss her again.

**A/N**

**Zagr lovers rejoice! I hope it was not cheesy in anyway. I think that was one of my best kissing scenes actually; not too cheesy (I don't think :l) and not too cliché. But your opinions matter! Let me know how it turned out! **

**I know I dedicated an entire chapter to some Zagr love, but I don't think you guys will mind ;).**

**I'll tell you what, when I was writing the bit about the meal she ate with the glowing fruit and bird…things, it actually sounded pretty good. I mean, who wouldn't want glowing, glitter-y fruit XD**

**Anyways, I hope you liked it and try not to squeal too loud over the scene ^-^ It was cute, but I can't afford to repair your parents'/ neighbors/roommates hearing XD**

**Chapter 14 will be up shortly! **


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N**

**Wow…this was actually a pretty emotional chapter. I won't give anything away so enjoy. **

When she woke to find his arm snug around her waist, it all came back. The chilly night, their conversation, their kiss; it all hit her. At first, she smiled. And then she was dizzy. Still unknown to even her as to why she let him kiss her and why she kissed him back, she brought her hand up to her head. Beside her, the Hatter still slept.

A cool hand faced contact with his moist, hot skin.

She examined her fingers as they traced the veins running along his temples. He smiled in his sleep and nuzzled closer.

It was all too much.

Wonderland plus the newfound feelings. What did she do when she was overwhelmed, dealing with the obstacles life threw her way? She left to be alone. She locked herself up in her room and drowned out all the noise with the beeping and cheap sounds of her Game Slave. But that was no longer an option. The only doors she had encountered that were lockable were that of the ones in the round room where she first awoke in Wonderland, and she did not want to go back there.

Yet it did not mean she could not take a walk alone.

She minded her leg which Zim had snuggled up to, his hands clinging comfortably to her skin. Slipping his fingers off one by one, she stood. Though her foot stepped onto a cracking branch, she glanced back and he was still long lost in his slumber. Tweedledee and Tweedledum were also asleep in a small valley, their arms tucked protectively around one another. Cheshire was nowhere to be found.

She was in the clear.

Avoiding the forest, she made her way along the outskirts, seeing that that was the only place she was currently familiar with. It was either that or the graveyard plain that housed the memory of the deceased warriors.

The outskirts it was.

A breeze floated through the trees and over the dust. She folded her arms to shelter her body which was still half-asleep. Animals croaked, chirped, hissed, and cackled. The sounds resembled an Amazonian forest, yet she knew better than to believe that these creatures were any animals of Earth. They looked different, even smelled different. She was certainly far from home.

Her arms stretched down to pick a flower similar to the one Zim had given her. Gently she peeled the petals off. The flower cried from the wound, drops of dew dripping from the gashes. Each petal floated through the air, dancing and twisting. They mingled with the violet strips of her hair which tapped the breeze like a piano, playing a tune only she could hear.

It was then, her mind settled and her eyes closed, that she felt someone near. She peeled her eyelids back and scanned around. Her body felt stiff, as though she could move nothing but her eyes. Even her neck fell hard at the bone. Nothing was there, or so she thought. A shadow flickered by. She finally moved and found that it was retreating into the safety of the shadows of the forest.

The Forest of Doubt. Zim had warned her. She should not go in there. The limbs of the trees casted their arms out as if warning her themselves; trying to protect her from the mesmerizing melody they hypnotized their victims with to lead them to the fiery pit of gnashing teeth. Yet she went. Why would she be so foolish, you ask?

Because the being she saw running into the forest had a black coat and a hairstyle that resembled a jagged bolt of lightning.

Dib.

It was not Tweedledee. It was not Tweedledum. Zim had told her once that the two could not be separated or else they would die. Even a moment alone without the other would harm their lifespan. Perhaps Dib had found her. Though the chances were slim, it was possible that he, too, had found the trap that led to Wonderland.

Pushing shrubbery away, knocking over dead limbs, she ran through the forest and grew closer and closer to the core. He was just ahead, avoiding her presence.

"Dib!" she called. "Wait! It's me. I'm here!"

He continued.

"Are you trying to lead me somewhere?" she asked.

He did not respond so she continued.

Something appeared behind her and followed close by. Turning her head for but a moment, she hollered, "Cheshire?"

"You are in the Forest of Doubt! You need to turn back," he warned. "Before it is too late!"

"I'm not running away now," she replied. "I think I found Dib. I think I found my brother, but I need to make sure."

"Please, Alice," he begged. "Before it is too late! Before it is too late…"

She ignored him and continued on. He frowned, but disappeared.

After a while, her head grew heavy, her eyes grew weak. The forest was beginning to take its toll. Though the ghosts of memories marched around her, dancing in a threatening seduction, she minded her senses and pressed forward. Her eyes were burning as though smoke chocked her very being.

There was a light. Yes, a bright light. Was it Dib? Had he finally arrived? The place that he was leading her to was here? The sting of the air was growing heavier. She squinted through the light and burning tears clouding her eyes.

She gasped as she fell and hit the floor. Wait. Floor? Was that plushy carpet her fingers stroked? She opened her eyes and found it to be true. There was a dark colored carpet surrounding her. It closely resembled…

"My room," she breathed. She walled her hands against the floor and rose to her knees. "And my bed!" she exclaimed. She gripped the sheets and blankets covering her messy bed. "Just like I left them," she said, breathing in the scent clinging to every fiber and every threaded string. And then she remembered. "Dib! Dib! I'm home! I'm finally home! Oh, you wouldn't believe what I have been through—" Yet she stopped when she stood to her feet and found Dib crying, his father standing in the corner. "W-What's wrong?" she hesitated.

He did not answer.

"I don't understand," Dib said. "I just don't understand." He covered his face, his body shaking from the sobs that broke loose.

She was startled to see him crying. Much like her, it was rare to find him expressing his sorrow through the burden of tears. She walked over to her brother and said, "Dib, what's wrong?"

"I just went to the mall to pick up her Game Slave and some stuff I needed and when I came back, she was gone."

"What are you talking about?" Gaz said. "I'm right here!"

They did not respond and her father sighed. "Son, I'm sure your sister is fine. She probably just went over to her friend's house to have a girl's night."

Dib glared over his shaky hands. "Gaz isn't into that. She has never liked that type of stuff. If you were here more often, you would know that!"

It was not like her brother to lash out on her father. What was going on? And why couldn't they see or hear her?

"We need to get the police involved," Dib said. "We need to send out search parties and hand out flyers and—"

"We will do all of that if there is a need for concern but right now, there isn't. Your sister is fine," her father replied.

"She's been gone for five days!"

Gaz gasped. Five days? No, she had only been in Wonderland for one night. How could it have been five days?

"How much more of a 'need for concern' do you need? Are you waiting for her body to show up on the side of some highway?" Dib continued. "Well I'm not waiting for that to happen. I'm going to look for her myself." He grabbed the backpack filled with flashlights and matches; the one she had left behind.

"There is no need for this amount of concern, son," Professor Membrane sighed. "She'll show up eventually."

"Eventually?" he laughed." Eventually? We can't wait for eventually to happen. We need to act now before it is too late." He wiped his face of the tears and pushed past his father, saying, "If you really cared for her, you would do the same." Slinging the pack over his shoulders, he did his best to choke the pain coming from his eyes.

Gaz walked over and looked up at him. His eyes were puffy with dark black circles hanging. Crimson veins pulsed through his bloodshot eyes. He had not slept in what appeared to be days. It hurt her to see him this way. He really thought she was dead. Her brother was more concerned than even her own father.

She placed a hand on his shoulder.

She watched as he gasped, his eyes flying in each direction, searching. He felt something, someone touch his shoulder. From his point of view, no one was there. From hers, she cried silently as she begged, "Please. Please see me!" But to him, no one was there.

So he left.

She glared back at her dad and screamed, "How could you? Don't you even care about me? You're supposed to be my father. You're supposed to love me!" She punched at him, but her fists fazed right through. "For all you know, I'm dead!" She fell to her knees as he left the room slowly. She whispered, the tears dripping, "I'm dead."

**A/N**

**It's sad that her brother cares about her safety more than the Professor .**

**The ending may have been a bit confusing. She is not really dead, even though she just said, "I'm dead." She is not really sure what is going on. All she knows is that she is home and no one can see or hear her. But this will all be explained in the next chapter.**

**I hope you liked it.**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N**

**Here is chapter 15!**

Her fingers dug into the plush carpet, leaving behind craters that spoke her agony. The door opened and closed, the windows slid up and fell back down, glass shards flying. The blankets on her bed were ripped from the mattress and spun in the air in a roaring hurricane. The drawers of the desk fell to the ground while the wood of the frame itself split down the middle as though it had been soaked in water for ages.

Her world was crumbling.

Somewhere in the storm, she felt a hand grab hold of her shoulder firmly.

"Gaz!" they called. "Gaz!"

"I'm dead!" she cried. "He didn't even care! He didn't even care…"

"Look at me!" The hands twisted her around. Her damp hair clung to the tears hugging her face and she felt claws scrap them away. Zim. "It's not real!" he hollered, eyes squinting from the wreckage flying around. "It's not real," he repeated.

"What?" she breathed.

All around, all began to fall. The room died down and faded entirely. They were surrounded in darkness. He grasped her hand and led her out through a door only he could see. When they stepped out, they were back in the forest. He said not a word and led her back to camp, a scowl coming along for the trip. His eyebrows were furrowed when he finally released her.

"That hurt," she said, rubbing her wrists.

"Why did you not heed my warning?" he questioned. He turned his back to her as he paced. "I told you not to go anywhere near the Forest of Doubt. That place messes with your head. Why did you go?"

"I-I thought I saw—"

"Saw? Saw what?" he asked, spinning around to face her. "What could have been so important that you ignored the warning and went there, risking your life?"

"I thought I saw Dib!" she yelled. She wiped her face off on the white skirt of her dress and released a rugged breath. "I was taking a walk and I thought I saw Dib. I had no intentions of going there I just did, okay?"

She sat to the ground, a dust cloud puffing up. He eyed her tears sympathetically. Taking a seat beside her, he sighed, "What made you so upset?" Her hand darted up to her cheeks to erase the evidence, but he lowered her arm and shook his head.

"It doesn't matter," she lied.

"Obviously it does, or I wouldn't have found you on the ground weeping."

"I didn't expect you to find me. If I did, then—"

"Then what?"

She frowned and a dead tear fell to join the lifeless ground. "Then I wouldn't have let you seen me acting so weak." She lifted her knees, put her elbows to her kneecaps, and rested her head in her hands. "I saw Dib and my dad. Dib is worried sick because on Earth, I have been missing for five days. But my dad…" she stood and laughed resentfully. "My dad couldn't have cared less. He was completely fine that I was missing, didn't cry once."

"Gaz—"

"Do you know that Dib was the only one that cared? The one that I have ignored and harassed and he is the only one who is there for me in the end. But the one that I have been trying to get the attention and approval of for years couldn't care less." She sniffled and unhooked the skull necklace, rolling it between her palms. "He kept trying to convince Dib that I was fine, that I was probably just spending the night at my friend's house. I don't even have any friends! If he spent one day doing his job, and I don't mean the lab, I mean his real job of being a father, then maybe he would know that!" She threw the necklace to the ground.

Zim did not know what to say. He had never seen Gaz act this way, let alone cry. Should he try to comfort her? She would probably decapitate him. Should he console her? He was as good as murdered. But he could not ignore her. Her father had hurt her.

So he did the best he could. "Gaz?" he waved, trying to get her attention. "I know all of that was very hard to take in, but there is something you need to know."

"What, Hatter?" she muttered, rubbing her temples.

"The Forest of Doubt has a habit of portraying images that do not exist. It plays on your emotions and doubts, the very reason of its name. So maybe—"

"I appreciate what you are doing," her hoarse voice whispered, "but I know it was real. I know my dad. He's never cared. I don't know why I care so much if I already knew this."

He walked up behind her and tickled the side of her face as he drew a thimble down her cheek. "Maybe you've been fighting for the wrong person," he said. "It may not be much, but you have me. Your brother, no matter how annoying," he groaned in disgust as he prepared himself for what he was to say, "he loves you too. And I know he will be there for you."

She faced him and he pulled out a crumbled, wilted flower, smiling.

She laughed.

"And that's all I need," she said, leaning against his chest.

"Get a room!"

The Hatter and Gaz glared at the laughing Tweedledee and Tweedledum and whistling Cheshire.

"Be right back," Gaz growled.

The Hatter smiled dreamily, but it quickly faded as colors flashed across his face and he flinched, watching the gruesome scene. The three victims screamed, expressing their apologies.

Zim shook his head. "I guess they'll be minding their tongue from now on."

Night had fallen as a blanket over Wonderland. They had left their camp and hiked across the land until a creature crooned, signaling the death of the day. The Hatter established their new campsite which rested on a small isle, hidden behind the curtain of the waterfall.

Zim flicked his hands under the water. Gaz set down the pile of firewood she had been collecting.

"I thought you burned if you got wet?"

"I thought a place like Wonderland doesn't exist," he grinned.

She smiled and began leaning the sticks together to form the fire pit. Zim pulled out a long, sharpened stick from behind the boulders guarding the isle.

"Care to join me?" he asked.

"Where are you going?"

"Hunting."

She glanced back at Tweedledee and Tweedledum who swapped their glasses back and forth before settling on the other's original pair.

"Don't worry about the campsite," he said. "They've got it covered."

Cheshire broke up the slap fight that was produced from the glasses-swapping. She raised an eyebrow and faced the Hatter. "Are you sure about that?"

He laughed and tossed a spear her way. "Let's go."

Moss covered the ground and led the way to a nearby forest. Though it was brighter, greener, and full of lush foliage, Gaz ceased her journey and refused to enter. "We shouldn't go in there," her fear stated.

"This forest is safe," he assured her. "It is not like the Forest of Doubt. You'll be safe."  
Her troubled eyes said she did not believe him. "Trust me," he smiled. He held out his hand and she took it, hesitating, stepping over the roots tickling the dirt.

"We will be arriving in the White Queen's kingdom very soon," he said, minding his footing. "Soon you will meet the White Queen herself." He tipped his hat at her and smiled. "Be on your best behavior, you hear?"

"And then what?"

"Pardon?"

"What will happen then?"

"I'm playing it as I go," he admitted. She blinked, taken aback. "Are you hungry for Dorb?"

"What?"

He launched his spear through the air and she heard a distant cry, and then a _thud_. A hog-like creature fell dead on the ground. "Because that's what's for dinner." He hauled the beast onto his shoulders and began his way back to the campsite.

Gaz did not follow.

"You coming, Alice?"

She faced the Hatter who stood, waiting.

"I have to collect a little more firewood. I'll meet you there."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"You said it was safe."

"I said this was no Forest of Doubt," he corrected.

She tossed her spear up into view. "I can handle myself."

He shrugged. "I can't argue with that but if the Bandersnatch returns, you can call your knight in shining armor."

"I don't see a knight in shining armor," she smiled, "all I see is one in an oversized hat."

"Funny," he smirked. "Just make sure you don't cry 'Bandersnatch!' on a fake note, because you may end up the Girl who cried Bandersnatch instead." He winked and left her. "The Dorb will be gutted, cleaned, and cooked by the time you're done. Don't be late for dinner," he sang.

She smiled to herself and bent over in search of wood. Time had long passed for the moon was already out by the time she was nearing her finish.

A scream pierced the air. No, not _a_ scream. _Screams_.

She ran through the forest, shoving bushes and limbs out of her way. When she arrived, she gasped. The Hatter was kneeling on his knees, blood dripping between his fingers. Tweedledee, Tweedledum, and Cheshire were nowhere in sight. That was when she realized just what she saw.

It was not the blood of the Dorb.

"They're gone," he panted. "They're gone…"

A man approached the throne which housed the silhouette, the shadow of a cruel being. Behind him, Tweedledee and Tweedledum were chained together.

"We found these two lurking in the woods nearby. There was another, but he escaped."

"And what of our visitors?" the shadow asked. "What of them?"

"They are real," he said, handing the being Gaz's skull necklace. "They have come."

The shadow scowled. "Find them and bring them to me, dead or alive."

**A/N**

**Uh-oh!**

**I hope you liked it!**


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N**

**I was reading my reviews and I just received the most thoughtful thing I have ever read. Someone drew a picture of Gaz based on how she appeared in my story! You'll have to check it out, it's really good ^-^ The link is provided below. Just remember to get rid of the word [DOT] and replace it with a period or else it will not work. Make sure to leave a comment on this sweet gift :D**

**http:/browse[dot]deviantart[dot]com/?order9&qcaileeclandestine&offset24#/d4zs67n**

"What happened? Where are they?"

The Hatter ignored Gaz as he stooped over the stream and ran his hands through the waterfall.

"Can you please tell me—?"

"I don't know!" he snapped. He sighed and watched the water turn crimson. "I don't know…"

She bent over also, scrubbing the blood clotting between his fingers. "It wasn't your fault, you know."

He laughed resentfully. "I couldn't help them. I tried, but I didn't. I wasn't able to do anything."

"Listen I don't know what happened or who took them, but we will get them back."

His eyes followed the water streaming down and flickered back up to the mouth of the cave in the rock wall the waterfall was coming from. "The Red Queen. She did this. She took them."

"Did you see her?"

"The Red Queen never leaves her castle, unless there is a chance to kill her sister, Mirana. No, it was her soldiers. They ambushed the others when we were in the forest. I just happened to be returning in time to see them thrown into a bag."

"Are you sure it was her soldiers?"

He frowned at her, but stood and walked back to the gruesome scene. He grabbed a jagged stone from the ground. It, too, was covered in blood. Pointing behind him, he scowled, "Would you like to ask him if he works for the Red Queen?"

Gaz came over and gasped. There was a man, no a card. It was a being shaped like a card. The armor covering it was bright red and in its hands was a spear. Oozing blood dripped from the end. "Oh, wait. You can't. He's dead." She faced the Hatter who lifted his brown jacket to reveal an orb of red just above his waist. "He put up a good fight," he chuckled sarcastically.

"We need to clean that out," she said. She led him over to the flowing stream and leaned him against a boulder. She flushed the wound with fresh water, the Hatter occasionally twitching in pain. "Do you know where it is, the Red Queen's castle?"

"Everyone in Wonderland knows where that is so they can avoid it. Why?"

"We are going to save them, tonight."

He sat up on his elbow. "And how do you figure that?"

"I don't know. But we can't just leave them."

"Alice, if we go in there, we shall be pronounced dead by the stroke of midnight. Our best bet is to retreat and go to the White Queen."

"Retreat?" She stood in a flash and was glaring down at him. "Since when have you ever given up?"

"I think it is better this way," he shrugged.

"Better this way or easier?"

"No, it is not easier. I care for them, but it is for the best."

"How can it be better if we are hiding and cowering while our friends are possibly dying?"

"The Red Queen will not kill them yet. She will first use them as servants. If they act out against her then they will die, but we have some time before that happens."

"I'm not buying it."

"You're going to have to."

The air was thrown from his lungs as she tackled him to the ground. He struggled to stand, yet found that she was surprisingly strong.

"Alice, let me up," he demanded.

"Tell me the real reason. Why do you not want to save them?"

"That is the real reason," he said. "We have a better chance if we go to the White Queen and—"

"You're lying."

"That is the honest truth—"

"Zim, tell me now—!"

"Because I don't want to lose you!" He held her hands and begged, "Please, Gaz. I could not protect them. I failed them. I do not want to fail you also. I could not stand it if something were to happen to you. I will do my best to defend you from those soldiers and the Red Queen, but I need you to let me. Please."

She stroked his face. "You called me Gaz." He blinked and she smiled. "If you think the puppy eyes are helping the situation, you may as well give up."

"I'm not trying anything; I just want you to be safe. And I don't know if I can keep you that way."

"You've kept me safe this far."

"But that is only until now. They could be watching us right now. And," he sighed, "and they are looking for you as it is."

She blinked. "What do you mean they are looking for me?"

"Do you recall the time I told you of the White Queen's prediction and of the savoir that would come?"

"Yeah, that's when you said it would be me."

His eyes narrowed. "That is exactly why the Red Queen is after you." He stood and flicked the water from his fingers. "She knows of the prediction, too. You are a threat. She knows you are aware of the existence of the four jewels."

She followed him as he journeyed from the campsite and wandered onto a time-worn path. "How does she know that?"

He smirked. "She has been watching us." His grip tightened on the two spears within his hold. "She has someone or some_thing_ constantly watching us. Now it is up to you," he twirled around, throwing the spear at her without warning. She caught it, "to be on your guard."

They walked to the edge of a cliff which housed a titled wooden sign. To the right was a path that led into the midst of darkness. She could see nothing past the shadows. To the left led to a land nourishing vibrant plants and dancing butterflies.

The innocence was bordering on the edge of sickeningly sweet.

"Where are you going?"

"I will leave that up to you, Alice." He nodded to the path on the right. "Do you wish to find your friends?" He looked to the left. "Or do you wish to seek shelter in the White kingdom? You know where I stand in the decision either way."

The once tight grip on the spear in her hand loosened dramatically. "It would be so easy to say to go to the White Queen and hide behind her. And I know that is what you want because you want to keep me safe. But I just can't." She clutched the weapon with both hands and held it as if presenting it to someone standing before her. "No more running. This is my story." She stabbed the tip into the ground. "And it's about time I start writing it."

"We may not survive," he reminded her.

"Then we will at least die trying, right?"

He laughed. "True." His hand swept the air as he gestured to the shadows. "Ladies first."

While holding tight to his hand, she dismounted the mountain and hopped down into the dark valley below. Once Zim was there, they trudged through the land. Water began to seep into the corners of her shoes. They had stepped into a swamp.

Gathering the skirt of her dress within her arms, she said, "We need a plan."

"Believe you me," he smirked, "we will need more than just that. We will need Lady Luck on our side also." He lifted her dress lightly as though he were about to peek under. She slapped him and he laughed. He tipped his hat in a gentlemen-fashion. "Make sure not to anger her."

"Besides bringing in prisoners and servants, how does one get within the castle?"

He tapped a thimble against his chin in thought. Just when he opened his mouth to voice his ideas, he paused and shook his head. "That about covers it." He shrugged. "There really is no other way."

Her foot became entangled in soppy roots and she collapsed. The Hatter grabbed hold of her waist in time to see that her face did not kiss the murky water.

"There has to be another way," she exclaimed.

His eyes grew distant and a wicked smile crossed his face. "Perhaps we do not need another way."

She eyed him suspiciously. His eyes took on a vibrant red obscurity. He said nothing else and grabbed her, tossing her over his shoulder.

"Hatter!" she yelled, punching his back. "Put me down!"

"Silence, prisoner," his tongue flicked in amusement. "You're mine and I'm in control now."

**A/N**

**I think Zim has lost it…again O.O What am I saying? When did he ever have it XD?**

**What will happen next? I guess you'll have to wait for chapter 17 to find that out ;D**


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N**

**New characters are introduced in this chapter, and I have to say: I think you will be surprised. Enjoy! **

Gaz lay slung over Zim's shoulders as he carried her through the land, against her will. How did this happen you ask? If Gaz even knew, I would tell you. She herself was still in the midst of curiosity, wondering what had overcome her Irken companion. She knew he was mad, but this was insane.

"What are you doing, Hatter?" she asked. "This isn't part of the plan. In fact, we don't even _have_ a plan yet."

"No talking," he commanded. "We will be arriving in Her Majesty's presence soon. You may speak then, but only to beg for your life to be spared."

"Her Majesty?" She craned her neck to look behind her to see what he was speaking of. She growled as she saw the Red Queen's castle come into view. "Oh, no. You cannot take me there," she struggled. "That is suicide! We need a plan and luck on our side, you said so yourself!"

He sneered and in an instant she was dropped, her back pressed against the stump of a tree. A metallic leg shot from his PAK and was pressed firmly against her throat. "That is enough talking," he hissed. "Another word from you," he pressed the bladed tip into her flesh to which she groaned, "and it will be off with your head."

He grabbed her wrist and commanded her to remain standing where she was. From his PAK he retrieved an item similar to handcuffs; the main difference was that they had a strip of blue light connecting the black metal cuffs instead of a chain link. Wrapping the chilled metal around her wrists, he pointed at the castle. "Be on your best behavior, Alice," he grinned. "You are about to meet royalty."

The palace doors swung open and in marched a knight. His armor clanked with each step, yet did not disturb the mass of black hair resting on his head. The light flickering from the flames of the candles perched on the chandelier above flashed against the red heart covering his left eye. Beneath the heart were two scars running across his eye. Anyone who threw their tongue into the field along with their luck to ask how he had acquired such scars found that they themselves bore similar markings afterwards. The residents of the castle knew to not ask of the birth of his wounds, lest they meet the same fate.

His boots pounded the ground and he approached the throne harboring a being. Kneeling upon a single knee, he grabbed the hand of the shadow and kissed it.

"My queen," he breathed.

"Stayne," she hummed. "Where have you been lurking?"

"I was checking on the prisoners, your Majesty. Still they refuse to talk on the whereabouts of their little friend, Alice."

"Bring in the prisoners!"she commanded.

Gleaming card soldiers brought forth Tweedledee and Tweedledum. They trembled and ached in the presence of the infamous Red Queen. When they remained standing, whimpering, the guards shoved them to their knees.

"Show your respect!" they spat. "Kneel before the queen!"

They did as they were told and kissed the ground with the imminence of the floor. Their bodies shook so, the cuffs holding them together vibrating. "H-Have mercy, y-your majesty," their fear stuttered.

The Red Queen positioned her posture to glare down upon them. "You have something I want, the knowledge of Alice's whereabouts. Where is she?"

"We couldn't tell you even if we wanted to. We do not know."

"You are lying!"

Spears were aimed at their throats. "We swear!"

She scowled.

"Rid my sight of these scoundrels. I will deal with them later." The guards gathered up the TweedleDibs at the sound of her command. "Perhaps time in their cell will do their memory good and then they can tell me just where she is."

They were led away, but got only halfway down the throne room when the doors swung open. All gasped. The hat, the thimbles, the demented eyes; this could be no other.

"Hatter," the Red Queen smiled. "I had feared you would not return."

"Aye, my queen," he bowed, grinning wickedly. "As had I."

"What is that you have brought with you?"

"Not a 'what', your majesty," he exclaimed, removing the burlap sack from Gaz's head, "but a 'who'."

The queen stood and stared the girl down.

Gaz blinked in confusion and said, "Miss Bitters?"

Indeed, it was Miss Bitters. The Red Queen was Miss Bitters. Or should I say Miss Bitters was the Queen. But it was not the grouchy teacher from her school; that always slipped the poor girl's mind. She merely resembled her "to comfort Gaz in knowing that she was not surrounded by strangers," as Zim had said. The teacher looked just like the woman she saw from the novel, _Alice in Wonderland_. With blue eye shadow smudged over the brim of her eyes, a heart was printed in lipstick across her lips. Her hair had been replaced with a curly red mass with a golden crown perched atop. She wore the most peculiar fashion speaking in the style of her dress.

"What did you call me, fool?" the teacher demanded.

"Ignore her, your majesty," the Hatter persuaded, stepping in front of Alice. "She knows not of what she speaks." He glared back at her with a threatening stare. She looked past him and gazed at the Queen.

"What is your name, child?"

"Gaz."

"Gaz? What an odd name. What an odd girl."She walked over and scanned her up and down. "You are an odd girl, do you know that?"

She sighed. "So I have been told."

"Where do you come from, Gaz?"

"Someplace you wouldn't know of," she groaned.

The spears of the guards were pointed at her dangerously close. "Are you mocking the Queen?" one guard asked.

The Hatter stepped over and tapped the daggered end with a thimble. "Mind your swiftness," he hissed. "She will be no good to us dead." He faced the queen. "If you grant me permission, I shall question this odd girl."

"I think we should have someone else handle this. Stayne!"

Upon the acknowledgement of his name, the knight stepped forward. Gaz gasped. "Dad?" She pushed past the guards and the Hatter and ran to the man who resembled her father. Throwing her arms around him the best she could with the cuff's restraints, she shook her head. "I don't understand. What are you doing here? How did you find me?" She sighed. "I-I thought you didn't care about me."

"Naïve child!" the man spat as he shoved her away. "Why do you claim myself to be the father of you? I have never seen you in my life!"

Her shoulders slumped and she backed away. "Oh," she muttered, "I keep forgetting. You are not my father. You only look like him."

Zim stepped over and grabbed her shoulders, dragging her back to him. "You now see, my queen? The young lady would surely do nothing but harass Sir Stayne. Allow me to handle the interrogation."

The queen thought for a moment before nodding, "Give the Hatter his own room and make sure the girl's restraints are tight. If she tries to escape," her eyes darkened, "off with her head."

"Yes, my queen," they bowed before leading the pair away.

Down the hall and into a room, the guards shoved her in and yelled, "Get in there!"

"I would not do that if I were you," the Hatter warned.

"And why is that?"

"Because I shall handle her myself. Go."He slid the door shut and faced Alice. The sound of their trudging boots faded and Gaz backed away from the Hatter who drew nearer.

"You betrayed me," she said. "You've worked for the Red Queen all along, haven't you?" The Hatter remained emotionless as she thrashed her chains and yelled, "Haven't you?"

**A/N**

**Don't worry, Gaz! Zim isn't a traitor. He is just a madman with an idea ;)**

**I know some will probably not agree with my choices for the Red Queen and Stayne, but I like them. If you do not know who Stayne is, he is the man with the red heart covering his left eye and also the Red Queen's main soldier and 'sidekick' XD.**

**Next chapter will be here shortly!**


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N**

**Here is chapter 18! Sorry I haven't updated in two days though :l. The first night I was watching **_**Chronicle**_** with my sister (which, by the way, is an awesome movie) and then I was busy the second night. But hopefully this chapter will make up for it! **

**Enjoy! **

"You've been working for the Red Queen all along, haven't you?"

The Hatter did not answer her.

"Answer me!"

"Alice, please." Zim grabbed her shoulders and pressed a thimble to her lips, failing to quiet her. "I'm not who you think I am."

"Obviously," she stated. "I thought you were on my side. You're the one who got me into this mess in the first place and you were lying to me the entire time. I thought you were against the Red Queen?"

"I am."

"Then what was all of that out there?" she asked, pointing at the door. "She knew you by name and said she wasn't expecting you to come back. That means she's seen you before. Plus she trusted you enough to interrogate me alone. She wouldn't do that unless she has known you for a while."

"That's the whole point," he grinned. "She now trusts me. That is what I have been hoping to gain for quite some time now. You helped me to achieve that and that is not easy, my dear Alice."

"I don't believe you, Zim."

"I am against the Red Queen entirely. I am currently working for the White Queen and this is my job, to pose as someone I am not. True it has taken much time to accomplish this, but I have finally earned the Red Queen's trust. Believe you me, this is not a simple task. Now that I am here though, I am able to walk freely in her castle."

"You are a spy?"

"Exactly."

She eyed him. "How do I know you are not trying to fool me?"

"If I did not care for you, Alice, would I have protected you from the guards? I did this so that you would see that I am truly on your side."

"If all of this is true, you being against her and all," she shrugged, "don't you think it was a dangerous move coming here like this? Couldn't you be caught?"

"Yes," he admitted, "we are in danger now, as we speak. But we need to get Tweedledee and Tweedledum back. And…well there is something I need to tell you."

She blinked curiously. He took on the resemblance of a battered puppy, his eyes darting and his head hanging lowly. "What?" she questioned, growing nervous as to what was frightening him so.

"You recall that knight, the one resembling your father?" She nodded and he hesitated. "H-He has the Blood Diamond."

The Blood Diamond? Wait. Was that not the last jewel the Queen needed to obtain her true power. She was afraid, her heart pumping fiercely. But then her Gaz-like instincts kicked in and she was angry. She punched his shoulder harshly and asked, "How could you let this happen?"

He rubbed it and stared at her, wrapped up in the midst of confusion. "Excuse me?" he squeaked.

"How long have you known about this?"

He shrugged. "I don't know, since about when the TweedleDibs were kidnapped. Why?"

Again, she punched him.

"Ouch! Will you stop doing that?"

"How can you be so calm? Once she has that she will be unstoppable, you said so yourself."

"She does not know of it yet," he said, attempting to soothe her anger.

"You just said that Stayne found it earlier today."

"He did." When she about to question him, he quickly said, "but he has not shown it to her yet."

"Why would he do that?" She sighed and said, "Nothing you are saying is making sense."

He rolled his eyes. "Stayne is a man of pride and conceited arrogance. If at all he finds the opportunity to shine in the Queen's eyes, he snatches it up right away. His downfall though is that he tries to make the accomplishment bigger than it is by putting on a flashy show."

"Meaning?"

"In short, Stayne will present the Blood Diamond to the Red Queen tonight after the end of a bountiful feast." He unhooked her handcuffs and threw them into his PAK. "We have an hour to save our friends and retrieve that diamond. If not," he drew a slitting finger across his throat, "it's off with our heads." He laughed insanely and hooted, "It's one of her favorite time-passers!"

She shushed him to lower his voice for the guards would surely hear him, yet he did not comply. Instead he stopped laughing and frowned. His eyes darted from the floor to the ceiling back to the door. Suddenly he grew terribly frightened. He ran to the door, his trembling hands shaking the doorknob.

"Let me out!" he cried. "Please!"

"Hatter!" Gaz shook his shoulders. "What is the matter with you?"

"I –I need to get out of here," he panted. "It's so dark. And cold. So dreadfully cold."

She pushed a hand to his mouth to block his panicked screams yet he shoved her away and crawled to his knees. She watched his body shake. His eyes were distant, as though he was not entirely there. She inched over and drew a hand across his forehead.

His jaw trembled and he whispered, "I can't breathe, Alice. Gaz? Alice? Which one are you?" Squinting his eyes and bringing a hand to his face, he growled, "I don't even know anymore!"

She cradled his head in the center of her lap and timidly watched the door, awaiting the guards surely to come.

"Gaz."

She looked down, frowning.

"I don't want to be alone anymore," he groaned. "I don't want to be stuck. I am stuck. I am stuck right now. The walls are swelling like the room is breathing, but then they collapse and crumble as though it is choking, suffocating. Am I next? Shall I die too?"

She shook her head. "Hatter, it's okay," she said lowly. "It's not dark in here. You aren't trapped. You're free and you are safe. You aren't going to die. We are going to live. We'll both get out of this."

He himself seemed to choke on his thoughts as he swallowed the tears and asked, "Then why am I so afraid?"

She moved to stand him up, yet heard a sound outside the door. Someone was walking, pacing the halls. She could feel the vibrations of the metal boots trudging in her heart. She held the Hatter close, but he untangled her arms from around him and stood.

Stumbling over to the door, he hollered with an ominous grin, "Aye! Guards! Come in here! There is something I would like you to see."

"Hatter, what are you doing?" her whisper hissed. "You're going to get us caught!"

He frowned back at her and glared. "That's the whole point, love."

The door swung open and three towering cards stepped in, spears charged.

The Hatter stammered from one foot to the other as he turned to the girl and pointed. "She supplies no useful information to me now. Throw her in the dungeon with the twins we captured earlier today."

"Don't you think it would be best that she is alone?" one card inquired.

"Put her in the cell with the others."

"But they may conspire—"

He ripped a spear from the soldier's grasp and pinned him to the wall, aiming the tip at its throat. "I said," he spat, "put her in the dungeon with the others.

The card reluctantly nodded and grabbed Gaz. He dragged her to the door and though she struggled, she could not escape. It took all three to transport her out and just as she was leaving the room, she caught a wink and a smile from the Hatter.

**A/N**

**Okay, so to answer your questions, yes Zim did go insane for a moment but then he played t off at the end and purposely got Gaz thrown in jail so that she could be with Tweedledee and Tweedledum. This time he has another a plan =D**

**Chapter 19 will be up soon!**


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N**

**I love the ending to this chapter, and I have a feeling you will too ;D**

**Enjoy!**

The smile and wink she had received from the Hatter said it all; that he had a plan and she was to find out very soon just what it was. But for the time being, she had to simply deal with the rough guards and their crude humor. That humor being their enjoyment at her misery.

They repeatedly shoved and pushed her down the dark halls leading to the dungeons in the castle's basement. It was just like she would imagine the villain's prison to be: water dripped from the cracked ceiling, cobwebs littered the shadowy corners, and in distant cells she saw the skeletons of forgotten prisoners.

Was she to be among those forgotten?

A scratching sound woke her from her worries and turned her head to a lonesome hole in the wall. A rat peeked its head out with its nose scraping the ground in search of food surely to be found scarce. It scampered towards her and met contact with her shoe which remained stiff on the ground. She glared down at the small creature.

The guards escorting her were just about to shove her, pressing on once more and ignoring her preposterous delays. But one stopped and glanced down to find the rat. He chortled a wicked sound and asked, "Are you afraid of such a puny creature?"

She shook her head plainly.

"Then I suppose you wouldn't mind touching it?"

Without a reply, she bent over and stroked the small head of the curious animal that blinked in wonder at the odd girl. She half expected it to rise and say, "What an odd girl. You are an odd girl, do you know that?"

The man behind her scoffed at the lack of fright found within the girl and kicked the rat away. It hit the wall with a _thud_ and a _squeak_ and bounced to the ground. She got close enough to tear a strip from the band of her dress, adjourn the wounded leg to wrap a cast around it, and stand just in time for the guards to seize her once more.

"Why do you bother with such a meaningless creature?" the man spat. "You really are a pathetic, odd being."

"Maybe because it has a lot more dignity than the likes of you three," she replied.

She was instantly slammed against the bars of a cell, the sound of her flesh splitting attacking her ears. Mind your mouth, they said to her. Learn some respect for those above you, they hollered. But it did not go through. She only gritted her teeth as she watched the blood dribble from her busted lip and tattered cheek.

Trashing her innocence with their malice, they cared not but threw her within a cell. Her body clamored to the floor much like an object, for that was all she was to them. Small arms immediately embraced her and she watched the snickering trio depart from their presence.

"Tweedledee, Tweedledum, are you alright?" she breathed, rubbing her head sorely.

"Worry not about us, missy," they spoke in a hurry, "that was quite the beating you took there."

"Are you okay?" Tweedledum asked.

"I'll be fine as soon as we get out of this place," she groaned. "You think there's any way out of here?"

"We've been looking but haven't found nary a thing!" Tweedledee whined.

His brother frowned and asked, "Do you think this is it? Do you think we will die here?"

"You know the Red Queen," Tweedledee cried, "she loves herself a good beheading. Any chance she gets, she'll be the first one there. It's only a matter of time before she asks for our head to be delivered on a silver platter!"

Gaz shook her head. "Nobody's beheading anybody. Zim has a plan—I mean the Hatter," she corrected when she saw their blank blinking, "and he is going to get us out of here."

"How can you be so sure? You saw how mad he was out there. What if he really is off his rocker this time?"

"I know, Tweedledum, because I have known the Hatter for a long time now and he isn't one to give up easily." She bent to her knees and her hair swept the ground as she ran her head along the bottom of the cell door.

The TweedleDibs joined her in her search but gave up, dusting the grime off of their hands. "It's no use," they sighed. "No one's coming for us."

Her eyes opened wide and she said, "maybe no _one_ is coming, but some_thing_ is."

They blinked, confused, but fell back to their original positions on the floor and watched a rat sneak closer and closer to the cage. They screamed and pulled back, shrieking, "Ah! A rat! Get it away! Get it away!"

The small animal stopped, panting. She shushed them hurriedly. "No guys, wait! This may be our chance. Just trust me." She reached her hand through the bars and awaited the feeling of furry paws smacking the palm of her hand. When he was on, she slid her hand back through and greeted the rat which stood waiting on her fingertips.

"How is a rat supposed to help us?" Tweedledee inquired from a distance.

The rat pulled a rusted key from out of its mouth and dropped the dripping metal onto the floor with a surprisingly pleasing _clank_.

She smiled

"Does that answer your question?"

The three ran up the stairs, occasionally minding the cards pacing the halls on duty. They peeked out from an empty suit of armor standing on display and Gaz whispered, "We need to find the Hatter. Once we find him, we can get out of here."

"But Alice," the twins said, "there is something you don't know about."

Her eyebrows furrowed.

"The Blood Diamond, she has it. The Queen has it!"

"I know!"

"She knows!" they cried. "Isn't it awful that—wait. You know?"

"Yes, the Hatter explained it all to me earlier."

Their shoulders deflated and they asked, "you knew and you are still going to leave, even though the Diamond is in her possession?"

"Look," she spun around, "I don't know who you or the Hatter think I am, but I am not her. I am not the Savoir of Wonderland, I am just some girl."

"But Alice, you are in the prophecy. Your arrival was foretold—"

"I don't care!" she said. "All I've wanted is to remain in the shadows, not bothering people. I was never needed before so why now? I know the White Queen said that I was going to be the hero, but she was wrong."

They frowned and glanced at one another fearfully as if saying, "What are we going to do now?"

"I'm sorry," she said, "but it's just not me."

They did not respond but instead, the color drained from their faces and they panicked. She turned in time to see a group of soldiers pointing their way and charging down the corridor.

Gaz summed it up in one word. "Run!"

Though, they did not make it far before they were caught. The cards dragged them through the palace before stopping in front of a large set of doors. With a creek, the doors swooped open and presented before them was a large room with a table not lacking any food. Fruits, meats, drinks; most of which existed not in her realm greeted Gaz's eyes.

But that was beside the point, for at the end of the table sat the Red Queen, Stayne, and the Hatter.

The Hatter stood abruptly, glass bottle in hand. He stumbled but five paces before he needed to find support from the table.

"Oy!" he chuckled with a hiccup. "Look-it! It's my love-y! Dear Alice, won't you be so kind as to join us?"

"Oh, no," Gaz groaned. And she was right. Know why?

Zim was drunk.

**A/N**

**XD And we thought Zim was wild just being himself. Poor Gaz, that is all I can say ^-^**

**I really liked how the sensory details played out in this chapter :D I am not trying to brag, I just hope my writing is improving. I hope to be an author one day, so hopefully it is improving :3**

**Chapter 20 will be up shortly and I am just as anxious as you to see how it will turn out!**


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N**

**This is the most hilarious chapter of this story. Well what else did you expect from a drunken Zim? Ha-ha! Enjoy! **

She couldn't believe her eyes as she watched Zim stagger towards her. He smiled cheekily, throwing his arms around her.

"I missed you so much…" he slurred into her hair.

"Hatter," she said, "what's going on?"

He closed an eye and looked at the bottle in his hand curiously. Laughing, he said, "Who knew Bubbling Cider could make the room spin so much?" Like a little child, he extended his arms out and spun in circles. "Isn't this fun, Al-"

"Gaz," she corrected quickly. "My name is Gaz, Hatter." She saw the Red Queen's eyes dart up when the Hatter nearly called her Alice. She had a feeling this was not a mistake that should be made.

"What are these peons doing in my presence?" the Queen asked.

"Your Majesty," a card bowed, "we found the purple being escaping, along with the odd twins."

Tweedledee and Tweedledum peeked out from behind Gaz who sighed at their fear.

"Shall we execute them, Your Highness?"

She thought for a moment before saying, "No, we could use the extra servants, especially for the banquet Stayne has prepared for me tonight. We shall simply behead them when dinner is over."

The Hatter giggled incredulously. "What a wonderful idea! His Majesty has such wonderful head thoughts, doesn't he?"

Gaz held her head and sighed. "We're doomed."

"So," he chirped, plopping down in his seat, "what now?"

"Now, we feast," Stayne announced. He removed his glove and waved it in the air to alert the servants who came from the kitchen carrying additional platters. The silver domes were removed and presented new foods to the Queen.

Zim chortled madly and hopped up and down in his seat. "Ha! Bring out more cider!"

Aprons and rags were passed to Gaz, Tweedledee, and Tweedledum. They looked at her questionably and she nodded for them to put on the attire. Bending over to tie the straps of the apron for the twins, she whispered lowly, "I'm going to try to talk some sense into the Hatter. I don't know if it will work or not so try to stick close in case something happens."

They nodded and joined the others at the table. Other than the Queen, Stayne, and Zim, they were not alone. There were various other "friends" of the Queen. Each one voiced their compliments to the Queen who simply ignored them and spoke to Stayne. Whenever the compliments ceased, she glared bitterly at the guests. The comments resumed and she felt at ease to ignore them once again.

"Suck ups," Gaz groaned.

Stayne scanned the table in search of something favorable. Sending a crude glare Zim's way, he asked in mock-kindness, "Hatter, what will you have?"

The bottle was set down only for the Hatter to blink confusedly at Stayne and ask, "Who are you?" He roared with laughter and slapped the man's shoulder a little too roughly. "I'm just messing with you, lad!"

Stayne laughed heartily before frowning. "Yes, of course you were," he scowled.

"Hmm," Zim thought aloud, "I think I'll have…" Just then Gaz walked over, pretending to work on the table. She stepped closer to Zim to gather his attention. She caught his attention in the wrong way. Zim smiled suggestively. "Oh, I think I'll have that," he purred, lifting the skirt of her dress.

Gaz spun around, her hand slashing the side of his face. He blinked rapidly and grabbed the throbbing flesh. The guards rose to seize her, but the Hatter simply laughed and yelled, "Wow! What a woman!" He lifted his glass to prepare a cheer. "I propose a" he hiccupped, "a-a toast, to Alice!"

Everyone cheered, save for the Queen. She set down her glass on the cherry wood table.

"What did you just call her, Hatter?" she said slowly.

"Gaz," Gaz said. "He called me Gaz."

"I am fairly certain he called you Alice," the Queen replied. "Now why would he make such a careless mistake as that?"

"He is drunk." She pointed at Zim who was busy balancing a grape-like fruit on his tongue. It bounced and poked him in the eye to which his lower lip trembled and his eyes grew watery, but he quickly laughed and clapped his hands together in delight.

"I suppose you are right," the Queen glared. "Well, _Gaz_. I would love to hear a bit more about your past. Where do you come from?"

"My past?" she stuttered. "Why would you want to know about that?"

"Why wouldn't I? The Hatter suddenly brings forth an odd girl whom I have never seen. You can expect that I have questions for you."

She would have lied, would have told her that she was born in one of the many places of Wonderland. But there was the problem. She knew of no other place in Wonderland besides the Forest of Doubt. Surely she could not say she was born in a forest.

Just as she was about to make up an excuse for the sudden amnesia she had seemingly acquired within the past three seconds, Zim stood and dropped his bottle. It shattered to the ground and he stepped over to Gaz, his boot crushing the shards into the floor.

"Where are you going, Hatter?" the Queen demanded to know.

"This girl is not to be trusted," he hissed. "She is not who she says she is."

"What do you mean?"

"She is," he stopped speaking as though it were a secret to great for his lips to voice, "she is a temptress!"

Gaz blinked dumbly, shaking her head as if saying, "You've got to be kidding me."

"Quickly! Cover your eyes vulnerable men! For once you are under her spell, there is no escaping." The men of the room gasped while swiftly blocking their line of vision. The Hatter grabbed Gaz's arms and dragged her close to him, pressing her back against his chest and wrapping his arms around her so that she could not move. "I shall move this heathen to the dungeon. There and only there will we be safe from her wicked, attractive self!"

"Let me go!" Gaz said.

"And you!" he hollered, pointing at Tweedledee and Tweedledum. "You're coming with us."

"They are mere piglet people," the Queen waved off. "Let them stay so that they can serve me."

"Nay, my Queen. They are the henchmen of the temptress. They aid her in her job to hypnotize the vulnerable."

Gaz sighed.

How drunk could one be? Obviously more than she had thought before. Zim had far surpassed the limit she thought to be on one so intoxicated. And the worst part was that the Queen believed it all. She let Zim take the three out of the room, supposedly leading them back to the dungeon.

But the Hatter had other plans.

Making sure no one could see them, especially the guards, he brought her to a lone, empty hallway and moved them into the shadows.

"Are you alright?" he whispered excitedly.

"What was all of that back there?" she asked, pointing behind him.

"A distraction," he smirked. "Well what else was I supposed to do?" he said in response to the glare he was receiving. "It's not like she would let you go wandering about and leave the castle."

"Yeah, but temptress? You couldn't come up with anything better than that?" He shrugged and she sighed. "We still don't have what we came here for. We still don't have the Blood Diamond. What will we do now? If you are taking me to the dungeon and returning to the Red Queen, what are you going to tell her? 'Oh, I'm sorry, Your Majesty, let me just loot your pockets and look for the jewel that will give you ultimate power?' It doesn't work that way, Zim!"

"Hatter," he corrected, tipping his hat. He waved his hands to ease her scowling eyes. "Easy, easy. It'll be alright."

"You're going to run out of plans eventually, Hatter."

"I don't need any more plans," he said smugly. "'Cause I already have this." He plucked a blood-red diamond from his breast pocket.

"You got it?" He nodded and she shook her head. "But I don't understand. How?"

"Stayne is not a very observant man, I will just say that," he winked. "Now, we need to take you to the White Queen. You will receive a much better welcome there than here."

She sighed in relief. "Fine by me. Let's get out of here." They rounded the corner and were just about to go down a flight of steps when she stopped him. "Wait a minute. I thought you were drunk?"

"Oh, that was part of the plan, too," he smiled.

"So you weren't drunk when you tried to look under my dress?" she raised an eyebrow.

He chuckled. "Nope. Ouch!" He rubbed his shoulder which she punched.

"Then that's for being such a fool to believe that you could get away with something like that."

"But…?" he suggested.

"But what?"

He sighed. "Every Earth film I have seen plays out that way. The girl always says to the hero, after punching him, 'that was for' blah blah blah . And then she kisses him and says 'and this is for saving the day.' Do I not get a thank you?"

"First off, you're not a hero. You just got lucky," she smirked. "And fine." She hugged him tightly. "Thank you, I guess."

He frowned, but his eyes opened wide when she kissed him on the cheek and said. "Thanks, Zim."

**A/N**

**New characters are going to be introduced in the next chapter! And let's just say there is going to be a twist of who the White Queen is. Definitely not who you think it is, I'll tell you that. But don't go guessing in the reviews! If you have any thoughts, just send me a PM if that will satisfy your curiosity ;D **

**I hope you liked it as much as I liked writing it XD **

**Chapter 21 (man, this is a long story) will be up soon!**


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N**

**The ending is priceless XD**

"…but I know you will like her. She is the kindest of the kind, the nicest of the nice, the compassion-est of the compassion. She is—"

"Okay, Hatter, I get it!" Gaz said quickly. "The White Queen is good."

He blinked as though he had not thought to describe her that way and said happily, "Precisely!"

"Okay, okay, she's a good person, but who is she?"

"Pardon?"

"Well everyone I have met in Wonderland is someone I know from back on Earth. I'm just curious to find out who she is, so who is it?"

"Err…Why don't we wait for you to see for yourself?"

"Why can't you just tell me?"

"Because you may be uh…surprised."

She frowned and asked, "Surprised, why would I be—"

"Oh, look! Water!" he interrupted. He trotted off awkwardly to the stream up ahead and dipped his cupped hands within the flowing water. She approached from behind as he splashed his face with refreshment.

"You're acting odd. Or, odder than usual. What's going on?"

"I just have a feeling you're going to be shocked to see who it is. Now," he stood and wiped his hands off, "we have other matters to attend to."

"Like?"

"Like what to do next. We have the Blood Diamond, yes, but that does not mean the war is won yet. Once the Queen finds its absence, if she has not already, there will be cards searching all of Wonderland. And you can bet that we will be their first targets."

She watched him wander over to the cliff and peer down thoughtfully.

"We need disguises," she said, heading over to join him. "If only there was a village nearby."

"You mean like that?" He pointed down and about a mile away laid a small village, smoke vaguely rising from chimneys and joining the clouds. It was just like what she would imagine coming from the storybooks she read when she was a child. Well, I suppose she was in a storybook technically, but you get my thinking.

He dipped his hand towards her, smiling. "Shall we?"

She stepped out of the way just in time for a horse-like creature to gallop past her. It was a strange creature with its spiked skin, prickly paws, and three fiery tales. When it called out, it resembled a trumpet horn mixed with a howl. She glared back at its rider and Zim smirked.

"You have to get used to folks around here. You aren't home anymore."

"I suppose I keep forgetting that," she said, eyeing an insect larger than a school bus which strolled by casually.

The village was something she could not have imagined herself. In fact, the houses were not houses at all. Instead they were mushrooms and large flowers with doors and small circles acting as windows. Chimneys ripped through the roofs and spit out smoke hoops. They were actually spitting them out. They breathed in, puffed out a hoop, and coughed before breathing in once again.

"What is this place?" she wondered.

"This is Folndane, one of the bustiest villages you will find in Wonderland," Zim replied. "Now just to find some new clothing."

"Oh! Oh!" Tweedledee and Tweedledum tugged on Gaz's arms. "What about that shop?""

Indeed they were right. Just across was a shop filled with exquisite clothing covered with brilliant yarns and shades. The merchant had his tentacles (yes, tentacles) full as he passed out items to their new rightful owners.

Gaz approached the stand warily, eyeing the being's many eyes which blinked curiously and settled upon her. He smiled to reveal crooked, bronze teeth.

"Well, well," he hummed, "how much for her?" he asked Zim.

"I beg your pardon?" Gaz spat.

"As do I," Zim hissed.

"Well you can't say a beauty such as her isn't for sale," the merchant chortled. "How much for a night?"

The Hatter pulled a dagger from his pocket, sticking it to the being's throat. "Does she look like she is for sale? Well?" He grinded the knife in deeper.

The merchant shook his head and stuttered, "N-No, sir. I must be mistaken."

"You will be more than mistaken when your four tongues are flopping on the ground, won't you?"

"Please," the being pleaded, "I meant nothing by it. Here," he stumbled away from the blade and displayed his wares. "Take a look around. I-I'll even give you a discount!"

The Hatter's eyebrows fell and he pulled Gaz close, leading her over to the clothing. She plucked a burgundy robe off of a hanger and held it to her body. Zim lifted a hood that hung down the back into view.

"Perfect," Gaz stated. "How much?"

"You can have it," the merchant gulped after receiving a glare from an irritable Irken.

Zim found a black suit and removed his oversized hat reluctantly. "What is a hatter without his hat?" he whimpered.

"What about them?" Gaz pointed to Tweedledee and Tweedledum.

Zim grinned. "I think I have an idea.

The Hatter straightened the twin's bonnets and stepped back. "See? Perfect."

"Yeah, no one will ever recognize them," Gaz puffed.

Zim poked their checkered bows. "You've got that right!" He dusted his hands off and searched around. "Now, where is our ride?"

"Ride?" Gaz followed him.

"You don't expect us to walk all that way, do you?" he laughed. "No, no, too risky. We would be spotted a mile away. We need something quicker if we are to get this Diamond to the Queen safely.

Tweedledum pointed excitedly to the horse-like creature which now had a wagon attached to its back. They wandered over and Zim stepped forward.

"Greetings. How much does it cost to hitch a ride?"

"It ain't for sale," the man grunted before spitting.

"Well, surely you could spare a few seats for a desperate man and his pregnant wife, right?"

Gaz frowned. "What do you mean, pregnant wife—"

Zim quickly popped a hand over her mouth and chuckled nervously. "Sorry, my wife is just a bit delusional after enduring the heat of such a long journey." His hand flew up to his forehead dramatically and he exclaimed, "Oh, you should have seen the rains and winds we fought through! I was forced to use my own body as a shield when a pack of wild Dorbs attacked us! I thought it was to be my final breath."

The man's wife stepped out from the wagon and looked at her husband worriedly.

"The beast nearly ate my two twin sons," he cried, glancing back at Tweedledee and Tweedledum who looked confused. "Just to satisfy its terrible hunger, we had to feed it our beloved dog, uh…Dib. Our beloved dog Dib. Yes. Oh, Dib! Please, forgive me!"

Gaz shook her head, embarrassed.

Zim fell to his knees and with hands clasped tightly, he whispered, "So now, kind sir, I beg of you. Will you spare me and my family the nightmares we wake screaming from? Will you be the one, different from the rest? The one who sheds a sliver of light on our black void of hopeless despair?"

The wife wiped away a tear and slapped her husband's shoulder. "Harold! Tell them that they can come." She faced the group. "Of course you can come with us."

Gaz frowned, disbelieving the fact that they had bought such a ridiculous story. "I didn't know you had it in you," she whispered to Zim.

"Neither did I," he admitted cheekily.

"Our dog Dib?" she scoffed.

"I always wanted to call Dib a dog," he smirked.

They stepped into the wagon and the man whipped the creature into movement. Gaz settled down and moved her robe over. Tweedledee and Tweedledum hopped up onto the bench beside her and smiled up. The wife stepped in from the passenger seat up front.

"I'm sorry about my husband being so stubborn," she apologized.

"Nonsense," the Hatter replied. "We are just grateful to have a ride."

The lady smiled and sat beside Gaz, placing her hand on her stomach. Gaz blinked unsurely at the woman before she was asked, "How far along are you?"

"Oh, yes. The baby." She laughed and punched Zim's arm. "Not far enough."

Zim yelped and rubbed his shoulder. "Y-You know how bad those hormones can get you," he chuckled nervously. He bit his lower lip when he received a threatening glare from Gaz.

After much conversation, Gaz sighed in relief to hear that they had arrived. They stepped out and she found that they were in a sandy field. She gazed around and sitting on the horizon was a castle not too far away.

"We can't let them know where we are going," Zim explained. "It may raise suspicions." He bowed to the man and woman courteously. Well, my friends, I bid thee farewell. Thank you for your hospitality."

"It's not a problem. Be careful," the wife waved. "And congratulations on your baby!"

Zim teetered away from Gaz who frowned while she waved. When the wagon was out of view, they resumed their walk and headed to the castle.

"We are almost there!" the TweedleDibs cheered. They stopped suddenly, their ears perking up. They lifted a hand up to feel for rain. "Is that thunder I hear?"

Gaz and Zim turned and gasped.

"I don't think that's thunder," Gaz said.

Coming directly their way were horses with cards as their riders. The Red Queen had found them. Gaz looked at the Hatter who simply yelled, "Run!"

They took off, dust riding their trail along with the sound of galloping hooves. They grew closer and closer, yet the kingdom seemed to grow further and further.

Zim squinted and pointed. "We just have to make it to that grass. Then we will be in the White Queen's kingdom!"

"You really think they will care?" Gaz shouted above the thunderous trampling.

Zim shrugged, but his mouth fell open and his eyes opened wide. She turned around in time to a bow launch through the air and into one of the card's chests. They groaned and fell from their horse which whinnied and took off running. The remaining guards were quickly taken out by the strangers who rode on horses themselves. The only differences were that they were white cards and their horses were ivory, unlike the red card's black horses.

"We made it," Zim panted. "We're in the White Queen's kingdom." He trotted over to the white cards. "Please, we are not with them. I am the Hatter and this is—"

"There is no need for an explanation," one card smiled. "Come. The Queen has been expecting you."

After a short ride, they hopped off of their horses and Gaz gaped at the mighty palace. It towered up and tickled the clouds. The large doors swooped open, a breeze sucking the skirt of her dress towards the throne room.

As they marched up the steps, Gaz watched the Hatter slowly take off his hat in respect. He bowed to one knee, staring at the ground. Gaz swiveled around to find the White Queen seated before her in the throne.

She gasped.

"Tak?"

**A/N**

**Ha! How's that for a plot twist/cliff hanger? How many of you guessed it would be Tak? I think at least one of you was catching on, but I'm not sure 'cause they didn't specify. But make sure you let me know if you had guessed her or not. Or even tell me who you thought it would be. I'll be honest, when I was choosing the characters before I even wrote this story, I was a little hesitant to pick Tak as the White Queen. I just thought it would be hilarious XD**

**Ok, ok. Before I receive any flames for this, let me just say that I know Tak is far from being the kindest of the kind, the nicest of the nicest, and blah blah blah. But I wanted there to be a twist. Plus Zim will explain why he chose her in the next chapter. So please be nice in the reviews ;D**

**Chapter 22 will be up soon!**


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N**

**Chapter 22 is here.**

**Enjoy!**

It was Tak.

With her snowy white dress and ruby red lipstick, she could be mistaken as no other than the White Queen. She rose from her throne and as she stepped down, the pearls hanging around her neck bounced. She smiled kindly at Gaz who overcame her shock and bowed respectively.

Glancing at Zim questionably, he stared back as if saying, "I'll explain later." He returned to staring at the ground as he remained bowing.

"Rise, warrior," the Queen spoke gently. "There is no need for such formality."

"I am no warrior," Gaz said, standing. "I'm just an average girl."

"You go by the name of Alice, do you not?"

She nodded.

"Then you are a hero and you are far from average." She glided over to the window and frowned at what she saw. "So much has been lost, so much death." She smiled at Gaz. "But our hero has arrived and shall step forth, sword in hand. The Red Queen's reign will end and peace will return once more."

The Hatter noticed Gaz faced the ground quickly at that, becoming overwhelmed. "Your Majesty? I am afraid the journey to your kingdom was quite tiresome. Would it be too much trouble to request a bedroom for myself and my dear friend, Alice?"

"Of course not, where are my manners?" She lifted a hand and two cards stepped to her side. "Please show our guests their rooms."

They led the way down a white hallway, up white stairs, and into a white bedroom. If you had yet to catch on, the White Queen favored white. Everything was sparkling ivory, from the floors to the chandeliers to the bureau in the corner. She half-expected the water to come out white when she turned the faucet on in the bathroom and splashed her face with icy water.

They were certainly in better living conditions, that's for sure, and she favored the idea of going to a room on her own accord instead of being dragged their, as the Red Queen had done, but something was not right.

"What is wrong with me?" she thought aloud. "I'm safe now. We are no longer in the Red kingdom, so why I do I still feel on edge?"

Hours had passed since they had first arrived at the castle. She could not believe she had fallen asleep for so long, considering the fact that she had rested her head for but a moment. But now it was dark and all was coming to.

"It's because you are nervous," the Hatter called from the bed.

She frowned, stepping out of the bathroom and allowing the towel in hand to fall to her side. "I didn't know you could hear me."

"One's doubts are as loud as a siren," he hummed, "always flashing and crying, even when the owner responsible for said doubts wants them to remain silent."

"If you don't mind, I could do without the riddles tonight," she huffed.

He sighed and stepped over to her, looking at her in the mirror of the vanity she was now seated at. "You don't have to be afraid, you know. It's going to be fine. We'll keep this Diamond away from her and everything will be peachy—"

"No, Zim, everything is not going to be 'peachy'," she said. "I know this is supposed to be a fairytale, but bad stuff happens in fairytales, too."

"And that is when you pick up the responsibility of writing your own story," he smiled. "I told you before, Alice, you write your own story." He pulled out the Blood Diamond and held it out to her. "Whether something bad happens or not may be out of your control, but it is up to you on how you use it to your advantage."

She glared at the Diamond, pushing his hand down so that it was out of view. "How can I use it to my advantage if I have someone's spear at my throat?"

"And just how would that happen?"

"You really think the Red Queen isn't going to come after us? She saw us running to the White kingdom, of course she'll come. It's only a matter of time. And what about Tak? I know you said that I would be shocked to see her as the White Queen, but that was just mind-blowing!"

"I know, I know, and I can explain."

"So do it."

He shrugged. "Honestly? I couldn't find anybody else to play the part. You knew Tak well from the past and seeing that we don't know many other people, I thought she would be perfect."

"The last time we saw each other was when she was trying to take over the world," she pointed out.

"But you must remember that she does not know that. They are not really who they appear to be. I only made them seem that way so that you would be more comfortable."

"It still doesn't help me with what I said before. It's only a matter of time before the Queen comes."

"But this time, it's going to be different."

"How?" She looked up at him and shook her head. "How is it going to be different? You know what she is capable of, especially whenever she gets that Diamond."

He clasped her hand within his and patted it softly. "You act as though the Diamond is already in her possession."

"It may as well be."

"She does not have it, and she never will. And what's so different this time?" He kissed her forehead. "This time, I'm going to be there for you."

"Don't leave me, okay?"

"I won't."

She grabbed his hand roughly and he blinked in confusion. "Promise me. Promise you won't leave me."

"Easy there, Alice," he whispered. "What's gotten into you? You've never needed anybody else. Why now?"

"Because I am so sick of going through life alone," she exclaimed. "For as long as I can remember, it was only me and Dib, and I always pushed Dib away. Dad never cared. I see that now. I mean I knew he wasn't the best father around, but I never expected that."

"Alice—"

"Please don't try to tell me that was just the Forest of Doubt messing with my head because I know it wasn't. And maybe it's not his fault, you know. Some people just aren't cut out to be dads."

He caressed her cheek lightly.

"Do you know he's never remembered my birthday?"

He pulled away and stepped back to the bed. Rustling through his knapsack, he withdrew something and returned to her. Smiling, he placed something in her hand and said, "I didn't forget."

She opened her hand and resting on her palm was an orb of ivory. "Is this a pearl?"

He shook his head. "It's something I found when we stopped at the river. I thought it was pretty and I wanted to give it to you, I just needed a good excuse to. Guess I found one."

She couldn't help but to smile. How he knew of her birthday, considering the fact that she had never told him, she did not know. All that mattered was that he remembered and knew.

He knew.

The Hatter tipped his hat and winked. She laughed, hugging him lightly. He looked down at her, moving her hair over. Their faces met, but they had no chance to progress further when there was a knock on the door. The White Queen stepped in and gasped.

"My deepest apologies," she said. "I hope I am not interrupting anything."

"Oh, no. Of course not," They both said. "W-We're just friends."

"Really good friends," Zim coughed.

The Queen smiled. "I see. Well, Alice, I was hoping you would join me. I would like to show you around the castle."

"Oh, yes. Of course." She nodded back at Zim and pulled away reluctantly.

He frowned and whispered, "I love you too, Alice."

She did not hear and let the door swoop shut.

Following the Queen, she noticed that Tak was not explaining any part of the castle, like one should during a tour.

"Um, aren't you going to show me around?" she laughed when she was led out onto a balcony.

Tak closed the door and sighed. "I'm afraid there is another intention of this walk. You see," she walked to the railing and glanced down, "there is something I need to tell you. Something important."

"Well, what is it?" she shrugged.

"By now you have noticed that Wonderland is all too real, right?" Her eyes widened and the Queen nodded. "It is alright. The Hatter has explained everything. I know this is all in his creation."

Gaz shifted her weight to her other foot, unsure of whether or not she was prepared to hear what the Queen was to tell her. "So, what did you want to tell me?" she finally asked.

She sighed. "Wonderland seems all too real because in a way, it is real."

Gaz shook her head. "Wait, no. That's impossible. Hatter said that this place wasn't actually real. He said his machine just created this world."

"And he is right. But you must know that when you fell upon the misfortune of becoming trapped in Wonderland, your body disappeared back at home and it won't reappear until you have completed your story."

Gaz tightened her hand around the wad of skirt she had clenched between her fingers. "What are you getting at exactly?"

Tak took her hands and tried to smile the best she could. "Alice if you die in Wonderland, you die on Earth, too."

**A/N**

**O.O Okay, everyone. I recommend running because we have an angry Gaz on our hands. RUN!**

**How was it? It probably wasn't a very good chapter considering I'm very tired and getting sick :l hopefully it was not a waste of your time though XD**


	23. Chapter 23

**A/N **

**I received so many kind reviews last night, wishing me the best of luck on getting better. I just wanted to say thank you and God bless you, too! And don't worry. I have had plenty of entertainment while I have been sick; I've been watching Lost ;) Yes, I know. I'm a bit late. But better late than never right?**

**Enjoy**

Zim had his back to the bedroom door as he rustled through his knapsack; the very reason being he did not see Gaz enter. She watched him before closing the door. He nodded a greeting.

"How was the tour? Pretty fancy castle, eh?"

She said nothing. He listened to her silence and blinking slowly, asked, "What's wrong, Alice?"

"If I die here, I'm really dead?"

"What?"

"If I die in Wonderland, I die back on Earth, too," she said louder, stepping towards him. "Why didn't you tell me this?"

"Alice, how did you…?"

"Tak told me. She wasn't really showing me around the castle—she was warning me."

He clicked his tongue thoughtfully. "I wasn't trying to hold anything back from you."

"So then why didn't you tell me? Were you afraid that I would get upset and not go through with it? Even if I wanted to quit now, I couldn't. I'm stuck here until I'm finished."

"That doesn't mean you are going to die." He took her hand and knelt beside the bed.

"How can you be so sure? If I would have known about this, I wouldn't have been so careless with my life. I thought it was just like a dream; if you die here, you wake up."

He shook his head cautiously. "That's not how it works here."

"I see that now."

"And what difference does it make? If I had told you, if you knew from the very start, what would you do? Would you sit in a cave, cowering in the corner because you are afraid of something happening to you? I hate to tell you this, love, but if that's your solution then you've got it all wrong."

"I wouldn't huddle up in a corner because I am afraid—"

"That's what you are doing right now." He sighed. "I don't say this because I don't care for you, Gaz. I say this _because_ I care about you. I don't want anything happening to you as much as you do, but we can't keep going on like this. You cannot let fear steer your life."

"I never used to be afraid, so why am I now? The one time I need courage and it's nowhere to be found."

"You're afraid because you never had mythical creatures looking for your head," he chuckled. "It's okay to be afraid, really. I just don't want you to let it take over you."

"I suppose." She ran a hand across her crinkled, wrinkled dress. "Wait, doesn't that mean that you could die too?"

He nodded.

"And yet you still risked your life to save Tweedledee and Tweedledum whenever those soldiers were kidnapping them?"

Again, he nodded.

"But why? They aren't real so they can't die. Why would you risk yourself like that?"

He smirked and shrugged. "I guess because you cared about them so much. They were the only ones you had at the time, besides me and Cheshire."

"Speaking of Cheshire—"

Before she was able to finish, Cheshire appeared in front of her. He rolled on his side and his tail wagged a greeting.

"Cheshire," she smiled, "I thought something had happened to you."

"The Red Queen never caught me," he smiled.

"Yeah, because you were too busy running," Zim scowled.

Cheshire grinned. "Oh, yes. I nearly forgot to tell you. Alice, there is a man looking for you."

"A man?"

"Yes, he says he is new here. He is one of the White Queen's new guards. Perhaps you could meet up with him in the foyer. He seemed very eager to meet the Hero of Wonderland."

"Hmm, I could accompany you, perchance?" the Hatter hummed suspiciously.

"It'll be fine. I'll go speak with him and come right back," Gaz reassured.

The Hatter frowned. "I suppose you are right. Oh, and Alice?"

She looked back.

"You may want to address the Queen on our little problem with the bedroom."

"What's wrong with the room?" she wondered, gazing about. "It looks perfectly fine to me."

"And it is," he smiled, "if you don't mind sleeping in the same bed as me. Remember, the Queen interrupted our kiss. We never got to finish what we started."

She glanced over and found that he was right; there was only one bed in the room.

"I hope you like yourself a good cuddle," he laughed at her blush.

She closed the door on his laughter and blew a strand of hair off of her face. Pushing away the thoughts Zim had planted in her head, she trotted down the stairs and made her way into the foyer. Just as Cheshire had said, there was a man in a suit of armor, clanking about like he had no clue as to what to do. She titled her head back and let a hand rest loosely on her hip.

"You must be the new guy," she stated.

He turned, surprised. Laughing at his own shock, he shook his head eagerly. "And you must be Alice, the Hero?"

"I'm no hero," she laughed, "but yeah, I'm uh Alice."

"Splendid! An honor, truly it is an honor!" He dragged her hand up and down.

"Nice to meet you too," she replied, a little startled. "And who did you say you were?"

"I have come seeking work. The Queen was gracious enough to supply me with an occupation as one of her guards."

She eyed his helmet. "Don't you get hot in there?"

"Pardon, Alice?"

"That suit of armor, it looks pretty hot. Why don't you take off your helmet while you are not on duty?"

"Oh, yes, well I am about to report to my station," he fidgeted. "I just wanted the opportunity to speak with you first, Alice!"

"Uh-huh. You know, you sound pretty familiar. Have we met before?"

"Certainly not! I would remember meeting someone like you, Alice!"

"Why do you keep saying my name?"

"I apologize. Is that a problem?"

She walked circles 'round him. "I'm just wondering why you keep saying it. It's almost like," she frowned, "like you're trying to make sure I am her."

He laughed. "Don't be ridiculous! I know a hero when I see one."

"Which is why you asked me if I was her in the first place, right?"

He adjusted his helmet and before he could reply, the White Queen stepped into the room.

"Oh, hello, Alice—"

"Yes, I get it! My name is Alice!" Gaz yelled, spinning around. She blinked at the Queen who stepped back, hurt. "Oh, I'm sorry, Your Majesty. I didn't mean to snap at you like that."

"It's alright," she nodded. "Ah! I see you have met the newest addition of our knights."

"Yes," Gaz glared at the man. "Yes, I have."

**A/N**

**Well whoever he is, he has certainly not made a good 'first impression' with Gaz!**

**Don't worry, you'll find out more about him soon. Until then, happy reading!**


	24. Chapter 24

**A/N**

**Oh, man. Tak is hilarious in this chapter XD I love the scene with her and Gaz and I think you will too!**

**Enjoy!**

"I don't care if you give me the puppy eyes, we're not sleeping in the same bed."

Zim sighed, still on his begging knees. "Come on, Alice. You know I won't try anything."

She crossed her arms. "Says the hatter who acted like he was drunk so that he could look up my skirt."

He pointed a finger and grinned. "Hey, not just to look up your skirt. I did that to save our necks." He fluffed his jacket and smirked. "Looking up your dress was just a perk."

She slapped him and he yelped.

"Okay, okay, fine. I'll sleep on the floor. But tomorrow we're going to get a room with two beds."

She threw a pillow and blanket at his face, causing him to fall back on his rear. She giggled and just barely missed his claws which jabbed out to snag her.

"I don't know why I put up with you," he sighed.

"Because you know the consequences of not putting up with me are worse than putting up with me," she smirked.

He rolled his eyes. "Abuse does not become you, my dear Alice."

"And perverted thoughts are all you are made up of," she threw back.

"Hey, what can I say?" He nodded coolly. "I'm a guy."

"A pig, you mean."

"A pig with really good hair," he winked, slicking his wig back.

She closed one eye thoughtfully. "I think you mean really good antennas."

"Ha ha. You're killing me," he frowned.

She smiled and stripped the mattress of the blanket. Hiding her face beneath the fabric, she muttered a good night and closed her eyes. Little did she know, she was not to fall asleep anytime soon.

The hours ticked by, one by one. She stared at the moon, daydreaming. She got a glass of warm milk; well, she swallowed a glass of what she thought to be milk. It was a white liquid and she did not want to question its origins. She even counted Cheshire Dogs hopping fences.

Nothing was working, and she was getting desperate.

She paced the room back and forth, minding Zim's slumbering lump. She came close to kicking his head a dozen times for fatigue was running its course on her mind. She was exhausted, physically drained, yet sleep would not come!

She read a dull novel. She walked down the hall to eavesdrop on a meeting held by the guards of the White castle. There monotonous speeches were enough to bore a man drunk on five gallons of caffeine to sleep; she was awake. She stretched, she jogged in place, and she even did pushups—her gym teacher would have been proud— still she was awake.

She decided to wander the halls of the castle in a bored attempt to find something to lull her to sleep. She was surprised when she stumbled upon the White Queen, who glided silently through the halls.

"Alice," she smiled thoughtfully. "I did not expect to find you awake at this hour."

"Yeah, neither did I," she admitted. "I can't get to sleep. I'm trying to find something to do until I get lucky enough to go back to bed. If I get lucky enough."

"Have you tried the F-juice?"

"What's the F-juice?"

She bounced on her heals joyfully and explained, "It is a serum one of our genius scientists of this very castle invented. You see, we gather a group of frogs and bring them in. Then we proceed with milking a sweat from their—"

"You know what," Gaz waved off, "I think I'll stick to pacing the halls."

"It is a wonderful cure for insomnia. I pray that you try it."

She clutched her stomach, gagging discretely. "Maybe." She clicked her tongue thoughtfully and returned to Tak. "Oh, yeah. The Hatter wanted me to ask you something about the room."

"Why, is everything all right?"

"Yeah, everything's fine. We just need an extra bed in the room," she shrugged.

"Oh, is there another visitor coming on your behalf who wishes to stay with you?"

"Not exactly. It's just the Hatter and I—" She trailed off and instead of finishing, used her hands to explain.

Tak blinked in confusion before gasping and blushing. "Oh, my! I am so sorry! I thought that you two were together in a romantic respective and were already intimate. I just thought a bed would provide some—"

"T-That's okay. Easy mistake," Gaz said through gritted teeth and hot cheeks.

"Then I shall surely look into that and see that you receive an additional bed by morning," she nodded. "Well I do not mean to rush, but there is something I absolutely must attend to. Farewell, Alice."

Gaz nodded a goodbye and watched her glide away. She decided it was time to head back to her own room.

Her body fell back onto the bed, sending the sheets and blankets into a wafting gust in the air before resting in place on her body once again. Her fingers stroked her tender eyes, massaging the fluttering eyelids that refused to remain closed.

"The one night that I need sleep and it doesn't come," she whispered a little too loudly. Zim's snoozing form tossed irritably from her complaint. She was tempted to throw a pillow at him—"Serves him right for complaining when I'm the one who's not asleep!"—but the last thing she needed was to deal with insomnia and his relentless "desires."

She faced the nightstand sleeping beside her bed, but forgot that digital alarm clocks did not exist in this realm. Had she been awake for hours, or was the restless state of mind at hand playing tricks with her head?

A flicker of light glimmered by the door. Her eyes flashed over to the orb and watched it roll closer to her. She propped herself on her elbows for a better look, only to receive the sight of the crystal-like light moving beneath her bed. Her head dropped over and right when she was about to search past the bed skirt, she heard someone shuffle by the door.

Shooting back up, she gasped. Her eyes widened, she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, yet the person did not disappear. She could not flip on the lights or a lamp for the only source of light found in this realm was still by candlestick.

Her eyes searched the man curiously. She debated the thought of waking the Hatter to take down the intruder. The person made no move to harm her, so she simply stared.

There was a single ray of light shinning in through the window, birthed from the round moon peeking in from the sky. It blinked its stars in wonder and glanced at Gaz as if saying itself, "Who is it?"

Her head lowered timidly and she reached for the candlestick next to her bureau. The man saw her anger and backed away timidly. Whoever it was ducked, flinching their arms before their face for eager protection. She realized that they were more afraid of her than she was of them.

Rising, she flung the stick backwards and stepped towards them. They backed away even further, their back tapping the door.

"Then tell me who you are," she hissed lowly.

"I-I didn't mean to fail you, Gaz, honestly. I tried to look for you. I tried to convince d-dad. But he just wouldn't listen," the person cried in a whisper.

Her eyes widened and she moved closer, causing the being to step right into the ray of moonlight. With the sight of light stuck on their face, she gasped and dropped the candlestick.

"Dib?"

**A/N**

**Just so you know, it was not Dib in the suit of armor from the last chapter. You'll learn about him soon enough.**

**Wasn't Tak's scene priceless? I love how out-of-character she is, considering she is the White Queen. Who would have ever thought her to be the White Queen? Honestly whenever I was picking the characters, I was about to cast the Queen as Mr. Elliott. You know, the overly-happy teacher of Gaz who has flowers floating in the background when he talks? Yeah, him. And if you don't know who I am talking about, look him up. He is in the episode "Gaz, Taster of Pork."**

**Hope you liked the chapter!**


	25. Chapter 25

**A/N**

…

Dib fretted not nor did he rush; he allowed his sister to stare at him with vague shock. Her eyes flickered from his renowned black coat up to his distinguishable hairstyle. He was not shocked when she shook her head.

"No," she backed away. "No, I don't believe this."

"Gaz."

"You aren't real."

"Gaz!"

"You can't be!" She panted back her fear, lowering her voice so that Zim did not wake. He was the hardest sleeper she had ever seen. "Look, I don't know if I finally fell asleep and this is a dream or if this is some side effect from the Forest of Doubt, but there is no way you are Dib. You aren't really standing here and this isn't really happening."

He seized her hand and whispered harshly, "If I'm not real then tell me how you can feel this." He jabbed her hand with a needle. She cried out from the affliction, jerking her hand away. A bead of blood spilled from her skin.

"Come," Dib said, "we shall continue this outside so as to not wake him."

She followed his finger to Zim and followed reluctantly. Closing the door behind her, she stepped into the hall and shrugged. "How did you get here?"

"I'll explain that later. First we need to get you out of here."

"Wait a minute," she called, holding him back by his arm. "I can't leave."

He nodded, "Of course you can. The exit is right over there. Let's go."

"No, Dib, I can't. I have to finish this."

"Finish this? Finish what? You are stuck in some fantasy world, Gaz!"

"If this is so fake then explain to me how I am still bleeding," she retorted, holding her hand into view.

He sighed at the pin-dot wound. "I'm sorry I had to do that, but it's not like you believed me. I'm not even sure if you do now."

"Of course I believe you are here, I just can't go with you."

"Why not?"

"I told you, I have to finish this. The Hatter said I have to finish this story to get out of Wonderland. Until then, I'm stuck. And you may be too."

"How do you know the Hatter is so correct about this? He may be lying for all you know."

"Why would he lie about this? He probably wants to get out of here as much as I do. Besides," she glared, "when did you stop calling him by his name?"

"What?"

"You just called him the Hatter, instead of calling him Zim."

He shook his head and shrugged irritably. "I don't know, okay? I'm just a little stressed because my sister is refusing to leave this mad world even though our lives could be in danger!"

"Will you stop shouting? And what do you mean danger? We're in the White Kingdom, it's safe here. I don't know if you are familiar with the whole White-war, Red-war thing going on, but—"

"Yes, I know. The Red Queen is evil; the White Queen is all-knowing and all-loving. I get it."

"Is there a reason why you're so angry about this? Because to me it sounds like you've done nothing but complain ever since you got here. What about what I saw in the Forest of Doubt? Was all of that fake?"

"What are you talking about, Gaz?" he asked, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"I went to a forest where something there messes with your head, and I saw you and Dad. You were the only one concerned about me while Dad could have cared less. Was that just part of the forest's illusions, or were you really concerned about me?"

"Of course I was concerned about you," he sighed, "and I still am. But right now I need to get you out of here so I can show you something."

Something was off. Dib was not acting like himself. Everywhere she looked, she saw red flags. Instead of tagging along, she shook her head. "It's late. It can wait till tomorrow." She turned the doorknob to return to her bedroom.

"Gaz, you don't understand—"

"I said it can wait until—"

"It's about Dad, okay?"

The doorknob slid back to its place and she blinked confusedly at him. "What do you mean? What's happened?"

"It'll take too long to explain. If you just come with me, I can show you." He grabbed her hand.

"Let me just get Zim—"

"There is no time," he seized her hand. "We need to go now!" He dragged her through the hallway and down the stairs. She could not remove his grip for it was too tight; all she could do was go along with it. They left the castle entirely and were approaching the end grounds.

"Let me go!" she snapped. He faced her and she panted, pointing. "I don't know where you think we are going but wherever it is, we can't. That is the end of the White Kingdom. One step out of here and we're done for."

"You can't keep living in fear," he replied.

"Surviving is not fear. There's a big difference."

"And there is also a big difference between our dad dying and living. If we don't hurry, it's going to be too late."

"Just tell me what happened, Dib," she sighed.

He was about to argue once more. Instead, he shook his head solemnly. "I don't know," he admitted. "But whether or not you come with me, I'm going to save Dad." He crossed the line and was disappearing into the darkness and out of sight.

"Dib, wait!" She jogged ahead and nodded. "Okay, fine. If there's anything we can do for him, I'll do it. Just lead the way."

He nodded and trotted further into the shadows. She peeked over her shoulder vigorously, constantly. Already she could hear the wails of the wind returning. She closed her eyes and shook her head, jogging her mind clean of the memories. She kept in mind that if Dib could do this for their dad, so could she. But why was she doing this? Her father did not care for her and would never do such a thing if her life were in danger. Why was she?

"Sometimes I hate loving you, Dad," she groaned.

Dib stopped beside a still, shallow river. The moon twinkled and when she joined him, she could hear a mourning harp singing in the distance. Lightning bugs gathered and wept, teardrops dripping into the water and swelling the stream.

"What's going on?" she asked.

He shushed her and stared.

Drops of light twinkled beneath the aqua layer and a hazy cloud formed within the shape of water that bubbled above the rest of the river. It drifted up into the air, just inches above the stream. Gaz squinted into the imagery while her brother stood waiting until an illusion, a dream-like vision formed.

It was the Professor. Blood streamed from his mouth and fell to his side where she saw a blade piercing his core. He cried and clawed at the air, weeping the words, "Gaz! Please, forgive me! I didn't know. I just didn't know!"

"Dad!"she cried. She stepped into the river when something blunt struck the back of her head. She fell into the shadows of the water, droplets splashing up. Dib panted, dropping the hollow log to the ground. He stumbled over and lifted her head by her hair. She howled at the pain of the hair tearing at the roots which lay embedded in the bleeding, dripping gash on the back of her head. He searched the pockets of her dress before grabbing it and holding it up to the moonlight.

"Finally," he breathed, "the Queen has been looking for the Blood Diamond forever. She will be pleased."

He let her fall into the water before crouching beside her. Her cheeks twitched lightly as she struggled to speak. "Y-you…you'll…"

"Try not to speak, dear," he mused. "Save your strength. If you want an answer to your questions, here they are. Why are you so weak? Because that needle I stabbed you with was doused in a serum that will leave you paralyzed."

She groaned, but coughed when the current came in and flooded into her mouth. He dragged her closer to the shore so that she did not drown, but she was still in the water and waiting at death's door.

"I can't have you dying on me yet, can I?" his voice entertained. "Soon you will die, though. I just wanted to finish. I simply hate being interrupted, don't you?" He dragged the sopping hair from her chilled face and smiled. "And you're right; I'm not your brother. This is simply a disguise so that you would trust me. How did I pull this off, you ask? You may recall that orb of light you saw just moments before you encountered me in your room. That was a Crystal Doubt, coming from your Forest of Doubt, of course. It comes in handy, truly."

"You…" she moaned. Her hands trembled as they gathered to her sides to rise herself, but it was in vain.

"I suppose I can at least let you see who it was that did all of this to you, considering the fact that you will die any minute." He smirked and shrugged, a flash of light overcoming his body. "Now doesn't that make you feel better?"

Her neck strained to look up at him. The last she could say before fainting was, "You'll get yours someday, Stayne."

**A/N**

**Jeez, he just left a kid to die like that. If Gaz doesn't get you, Zim will so watch your back, Stayne.**

**I hope you liked it. Chapter 26 will be up shortly.**


	26. Chapter 26

**A/N**

**This chapter is scary in its own way. It may be a bit confusing, but I will explain at the end. **

**Enjoy.**

"Stop the ticking."

_Tick…_

_ Tock…_

_ Tick…_

_ Tock…_

"Stop! Please…"

_Tick…_

_ Tock…_

_ Tick…_

_ Tock…_

"I need you to stop!"

All was silent. Doors, doors, they were everywhere. Darkness made up the realm surrounding her. The air was thick, murky; she could not breathe.

"Where am I?" her voice echoed. "All I can remember is…" she trailed off.

Whenever she opened a door, a decaying corpse full of rot fell to its knees. She backed away as its head shook, twitched, faster and faster. Whenever it looked up, its soulless eyes wept.

"I can't find you, Mom!" the skeleton cried. Its growling voice changed. With radio static and sirens filling the background, the voice of her demons acquired the sound of her voice. The skeletons sounded exactly like her, but they were not her.

"I can't find you!" it said over and over. It resembled a child in the way that it dressed. A toddler shirt with a budding rose was its clothes. It was the exact shirt she wore when she was a child.

She backed away with hollow footsteps. Though there was no floor, nothing but darkness and shadows, she found that she did not fall. She glanced about, yet there was no place to hide.

The corpse wept tears of blood that stained its crusted cheeks. Flakes of skin chipped off. "Why are you leaving me, Mommy? I miss her!" it wept. It scratched the ground and crawled over to Gaz, clinging to her legs. "I miss her. I miss her. Lead me to my mother. Please, we have been parted for so long!"

She growled and pried the fingers from her legs. It cracked and fell back, shielding its face and ducking. The body froze and stone overcame its form. It remained stuck, frozen in the position of a frightened child, never to move again.

A door behind her creaked open. She faced yet another skeleton which shuddered forward on broken limbs. Where the legs and arms should have been, shards of bone jutted out from the splinted fissure. The bones were broken so that the being could only crawl on its knees and elbows; nothing else remained.

"Why won't you wake, mummy," it whispered. "Why do you still sleep…?"

Gaz recognized the very words she spoke from her childhood. "No," she shook her head. "No, stop it!"

"_You are my sunshine_," the rotting corpse sang, "_my only sunshine. You make me happy, when skies are_—" it's voice dropped to a growl and it faced Gaz angrily, "You took away my happiness," it accused. "You took away the sunshine. I am no longer happy when skies are grey." It grabbed her legs out from beneath her and she fell. It crawled on top of her and jabbed a shuddering finger in her face. "You took away my happiness, Dad."

She shook her head, "I don't blame Dad for Mom's death. There was nothing he could do. He tried his best!"

It hissed. "Then why do you hate him?"

"I don't, so stop trying to plant these thoughts in my head." She pushed the carcass away and when it thudded to the floor, it remained still as a coat of stone overcame its body, just like the one before.

A man opened the other door. Blood dripped from his temples and his dead, decomposing skin drank the crimson flow. He stumbled closer and when he was next to her, she recognized the white lab coat which lay wrapped in shreds around his crumbling torso. Cracked glasses sat across his eyes.

"Time is running out," he groaned. "The doctors told me so."

Just then, two other men appeared on the ground. They writhed in pain, their fingers clutching their ears and scratching at their throat. "Blame us, blame us," they chanted. "We did all we could. She was destined to die, destined to die…"

The first man in the lab coat stepped over to Gaz and clenched her shoulder coldly. He looked at her with calloused, wrinkled, and blistered eyes. The iris was no longer there and nothing about the eye resembled a human. The pupil had taken over and was now a murky orb of black.

"They did all they could, Gaz," he said.

He turned and sat carefully on his knees, head bowed. When he looked up, there lay a hospital bed dripping with blood. An indention on the sheets resembled a body laying at rest, yet no one was there. The part that frightened her most was that there seemed to be somebody tossing and turning in pain, the sheets wrinkled and folding, yet she could see no one.

"I never meant for this to happen," the man whispered. "It was an accident. I never meant to do this to you."

Gaz stepped closer to the man, listening to his voice. "Dad?" her voice trembled.

Her eyes scanned the white lab coat and fell upon the shattered white rectangle resting near the collar. She approached and when she saw that he did not move, she lifted the I.D. into view. There was a light coming from above, but she knew not the source. There was nothing around except for the darkness, the doors, and now the hospital bed. The other bodies were dead, frozen in stone. The light provided enough sight so that she could read the name tag.

Professor Membrane.

It was her father. But what of the other corpses? The first two were memories; they resembled her in the way that they wore the clothes from her childhood and had the same voice. They had repeated the words she had said, when but a child.

The two men in the white coats? They were doctors. She recognized their voices as they chanted their guilt. They had been there when her mother was dying.

"So then what are you saying?" she asked her father.

He did not respond for in his mind, she was not there. He held the hand of someone she could not see. "I'm so sorry," he muttered. "Forgive me? Forgive me." He waited for a response no one could hear before nodding. "Dib is crying. Gaz is asleep in the other room." Just then he turned, as though hearing a noise.

The bed disappeared, the remaining corpses vanished, and she was alone with the corpse of her father. Skin grew and covered his bones. The dead flesh withered away. The cracked glasses were now new. He was now the man she recognized as her father.

He shook his head down at his daughter. "I'm so sorry, Gaz."

She glared up at him bitterly. "I don't understand. What happened to her? You said she was sick with a disease, but that's now how it really happened, is it?"

He shook his head. "I tried to save her. I did."

"What happened to her?"

He did not respond.

"Tell me!"

He said nothing, but pointed behind her. She turned and found a bedroom. A hospital bed rested in the corner with two men standing circled 'round it. Several clothes covered in dried blood rested on the bureau. She crossed the floor hesitantly, her footsteps tapping the hollow, wooden beams.

From their stethoscopes and confusing talk, she recognized them as the doctors who had diagnosed her mother. They whispered and muttered. She could not pick up but fragments and pieces of their conversation.

"…husband did it. I know he's a scientist, but what kind of person does this to his own wife?"

The other man shrugged. "All I care about is getting the job done. We have to cover his trail, make sure it looks like an accident. The story is that it is a terminal disease she had the misfortune of catching and we're sticking with it."

"But what if someone finds out? Then we could all lose our jobs."

"And that's exactly why we are here; to make sure no one figures it out."

The first man kneeled to feel for her pulse. "Those two are going to be a problem you know, those two kids," he pointed out.

The other man sighed. "Their dad's taking care of that mess. We just have to take care of this and then we're done."

Her dad came into the room and whispered something before nodding. The doctors exited the room, leaving him alone with Gaz's mother. She watched the same scene from before play out as he kneeled beside her.

Her mother opened her eyes for the first time since Gaz had arrived. She coughed hoarsely. "I'm going to be leaving soon."

The Professor nodded meekly and muttered, "I know, honey. I know."

"Where are the kids?"

He looked at the door. "Dib is on the couch. H-He's kind of out of it."

"Is that who I hear crying?" she frowned.

"Yeah," he nodded, "he's not taking it too well."

"Make sure to tell him I love him. I never wanted him to hurt because of me."

Her father nodded again.

"What about Gaz, where is she?"

"She is asleep."

"It's for the best," her mother voiced weakly. "I don't want her to see me this way."

The Professor continued to nod, but his head fell and his shoulders shook violently as he wept. He caressed her face slowly. "I never meant for this to happen," he whispered. "It was an accident. I never meant to do this to you."

"If you hadn't, we would have never had Gaz," her mother replied. "I would never have had it any other way."

"I'm so sorry," he muttered. "Forgive me?" He rested his head against her chest and begged, "Forgive me."

She was about to speak but broke into a fit of coughing. Blood sputtered from her mouth and landed on her chin and cheeks. The Professor quickly grabbed the rag from the bureau and dabbed her face clean.

Her mother grabbed his hand and pleaded, "Please, watch over the kids. I don't care what you have to tell them, but do not let them find out. They can't know that you—" She stopped. She peered fearfully past her husband at the door. He followed her gaze and found a little girl clutching a stuffed bear.

"Why are you leaving me, Mommy?" the child of Gaz asked.

**A/N**

**Okay, now to explain what happened in this chapter. So this is all happening after Stayne left Gaz to die in the river. She doesn't know where she is or what's going on, except that there are doors scattered about in the darkness which she is currently trapped in. Whenever she opened a door, a decomposing corpse fell out and began to voice her memories. Whatever the skeletons said are things that she had said or things that had really happened in her past. The first two are "memories" of her as a child, the man is her father, and the other two are the doctors who are covering up for the Professor's mistake (which you will find out about in chapter 27). The constant ticking you heard in the beginning is to represent that she is, to put it vaguely, "stuck" between lapses of time. She isn't n the past, present, or future. She just exists.**

** Whenever she steps into the bedrooms with her mother, the doctors, and her father, that is a memory of what happened right before her mother died. I know, confusing, but you will find out more in the next chapter.**

**Wow, this was a hard chapter to write. I was hoping to have a sense of fear and make it somewhat scary, but emotional too. Hopefully that worked out the way I had planned. **

**Feedback would be great to let me know how I can improve, because I know I need improvement, but someday I hope to be an author so all helpful criticism is welcome (just please do not be rude).**

**Chapter 27 will be here shortly!**


	27. Chapter 27

**A/N**

**Continuing from chapter 26…**

Gaz watched the young child of herself approach her dying mother. She stepped back in a daze and leaned her head against the wall slowly. Tears dripped; no one heard them. They fell in a dream, hitting the wooden floor and staining the beams.

The child of Gaz leaned against the metal railing surrounding her mother's bed and coffin. She dropped the teddy bear onto her chest to which her mother grasped the tiny arms, dangling it into view. The blood she had rubbed from her mouth, now staining her hands, soaked into the fabric beneath the stuffed animal's arms.

"What is that black marker surrounding its eyes for?" the mother whispered.

"My teddy bear was sad, so he cried," she blinked.

Her mother wept. She swam a hand through the flow to disregard the pain leaking out. "It's going to be okay, honey," she stumbled over her words. "I promise. It's going to be okay."

Her daughter shook her head. "You're leaving me. It's not going to be okay. I'll miss you." She glanced at the bloody rags harboring, suffocating her mother's space. "Why do you have to go?"

The woman struggled to speak as she gasped through her tears. "Because mommy is very sick," she nodded. "But I'll always be with you, okay? You've got to know that. Even if you can't see me."

The child shook her head. "But I want to see you. Who will read me my bedtime stories and who will tuck me in? No one else can do that, only mommies."

"Daddy will be there to take care of you, sweetie."

"No!" she stomped her foot. "Only mommies can do that, not daddies. You have to stay, okay?"

The mother's shoulders shook as she squinted her eyes, her lips folding beneath. "I'm so sorry, baby," she breathed. "I'm so sorry."

Gaz stared lifelessly as the room, the doors, and the corpses faded. She looked down and found that the teddy bear had found its way into her hand. Her dead eyes did not blink or move; she died. The tapping of her heart reverted to a thumping beat.

"All this time I thought she was sick," she muttered, "but that's not really all there is behind the story, is it?"

Her father appeared out of the shadows. "I'm sorry, Gaz."

"I don't need to hear any more apologies," she sighed. "I heard so many of them at the funeral. Everyone kept coming to me and saying how sorry they were, but it didn't matter. Their words wouldn't bring back Mom, they couldn't. And I know that the truth won't bring her back either, but I want to know what happened. I need to know so that I can stop wondering why it all seemed so wrong."

The light from above grew brighter. It was not much, but it was still noticeable.

The Professor gazed at the ground.

"You're mother was sick, that part was true." He nodded in a daze. "She got sick right after she gave birth to Dib. The doctors thought she would die. They didn't know how she caught it, they said it was a one in a million chance of catching the sickness, but she caught it. She almost died and I had to do something. So instead of waiting for the doctors to heal her, I decided to treat her myself. We took her away from that hospital and brought her home. After Dib went to sleep, I gave her an injection. It was nothing to hurt her, it was to heal her and it did. Then she got pregnant with you."

"If she was healed then what happened?" she groaned.

"She was five months along and the sickness came back. I don't know why or how, but it came back, this time stronger. She suffered from a seizure and I knew that she was about to die. The doctors were so certain that they told me I should begin planning for the funeral. Can you believe that? Your mother was in the room when they said that."

Gaz glared over to the spot where the corpses of the doctors once laid. They were gone, but her hatred was not.

"Whenever I tried to take her home, they said that it would do more harm than good. So instead of taking her away, I brought the medicine to her. It was the injection before only this time it was more concentrated, just like the disease had been." He cupped his forehead, warm tears splashing his face. "But it didn't cure her. It made her appear better so that she was able to leave the hospital and she thought she was healthy, but I knew better. I wanted to tell her, I really did. But then you were born, and she was so happy. I couldn't destroy that happiness, not for anything."

She blinked in disbelief and strangled the bear in her tight grip.

"Your mother loved you very much, Gaz. She was so happy the first time she held you. You know what she said? She said that you made it all worthwhile."

Gaz faced him abruptly. "You lied to her."

"No, Gaz. I didn't mean to—"

"You knew that she was still sick but decided not to tell her just so you could save yourself?"

"It's not like that."

"Then what is it? Huh? You say you were trying to save her but to me it just seems like you were a coward; a coward who was too afraid to admit that he was wrong."

"We did it to save you."

Her eyebrows relaxed, yet she was still bitter. "I don't understand."

"The sickness your mother had was enough to do damage to you. She was five months pregnant when she relapsed and she was not the only one who was affected. You got sick too, inside of her womb. If I didn't give your mother that serum, then she would have had a miscarriage. You would have died."

She stammered, shifting her weight from one leg to the other. Her mind was spinning, racing. "So you're telling me that if it hadn't been for me, Mom would still be alive?"

"Gaz."

"I killed her?"

He grabbed her shoulders. "No, don't you ever say that. Don't ever say that again."

"Admit it, Dad," she yelled, "if you hadn't had to risk it all to save me, she would still be around. Why didn't she skip the injection? Why didn't she save herself? Why—"

"Because she couldn't let you go." He looked her in the eyes and stroked the tears away. "Your mother did all of that, risking her life and taking the injection, because she wanted you. She said that if anything happened to you, then she may as well have died like the disease had originally intended. Without you, there was nothing. Your mother hadn't even met you, but she already knew you were someone to be loved and cherished and she was right."

"But if it hadn't been for me, Dib would still have a mother." She cried and clawed at her hair irritably. "Do you know that he still has nightmares? He stills calls out for her in the middle of the night. You've never heard it because you were never home, but I have. Now I'm going to go through those nights knowing that because of me, that pain is there and always will be."

"There was nothing you could have done. You didn't cause it. You were just a baby."

"But why wasn't there something I _could_ have done?" she yelled.

She sank to the floor and rocked quietly, shielding her eyes from the light that grew brighter above. "That's how it really happened? All of these years and I didn't even know how my own mother really died?"

"She didn't want you to blame me, or yourself. I wanted to tell you, believe me. I wanted it more than anything. I felt responsible for it all and I still do. But it was her final wish; she wanted me to lie so that you wouldn't hate me or her."

"Why would I hate her? She saved my life." She glanced up at him. "But you…" she shook her head and stood. "I don't know what to think." She shrugged. "Heck, what am I saying? I don't even know what to think of myself."

"I don't blame you if you hate me. I shouldn't have lied to you all these years. I was just trying to protect you."

"Protect me? You mean like the way you protected Mom?"

He frowned. "I just wanted you to know that I'm sorry. I did the best that I could. And if you can blame me instead of feeling like you caused this in any way, I will understand. That is what I want. I never want you thinking you did anything to harm you mother."

The light was growing brighter, hotter. She wiped the sweat from her brow, staring down at the teddy bear with black tears. As if the bear was sweating itself, the black marker dripped and ran down its ragged fur. She lifted the dainty arms to find the bloody fingerprints her mother had left when she had lifted the teddy bear herself. "Thanks, Mom," she whispered lowly.

Facing her father, she shook her head. "I can't blame you. I don't blame you."

"What?" he breathed.

"As much as I want to hate you and blame you for all of this, I can't. I don't know if it's because you're my dad and I love you, or if it's because I know that you really did try…" she trailed off.

He waited for her, his hands clenching one another. She slowly turned and headed for the single door that had appeared from the darkness. With chipping red paint and a dull, bronze doorknob, she opened it and glanced at her father one last time.

"But either way," she dropped the bear and walked out after saying, "it's not what Mom would have wanted."

**A/N**

**Wow, this chapter was intense O.O I hadn't even planned on it turning out that way! Hopefully it was good.**

**A lot of people liked this past chapter. I think it was the "horror" feeling of it. If so, then you will love the next Invader Zim story I have after Gaz in Wonderland is finished *laughs sneakily*. But you will have to wait, won't you? XD. Just like my friend, Invader French Fries, said: "Your darn cliff hangers!" I know, I'm cruel ^-^**

**Chapter 28 will be up shortly. And don't worry: the ending is approaching! I know I kept you guys waiting for a while and I am sorry about that, but your waiting has paid off!**


	28. Chapter 28

**A/N **

**Chapter 28 is here! Enjoy!**

"Gaz, wake up!"

"No…five more minutes."

"Gaz, come on. Wake up."

"Err… the Super Toast is in the cabinet on the left. Get it yourself, Dib."

Icy water was splashed on her face. She overcame the shock and lurched forward, giving it her all as she punched the stranger. Zim doubled back in pain, all the while clutching his chin protectively.

"Well, you are welcome!" he squeaked. "And that's the thanks I get for dragging you out of that river and saving your life."

"Saving my life? Are you saying I am not dead?"

Rubbing his jaw, he replied, "If you're dead, then you are the strongest zombie I have ever seen." He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed at his chin. There was dried blood already present on the rag and she noted the curious scratches and scrawls marking his skin, this way and that.

She cupped his face and turned it to gather his appearance. "What happened to you? You're all bruised up."

"Let's just say me and that brute, Stayne, got in a bit of a brawl after I saw what he did to you," he said, wincing when she stroked a black and blue lump. "Got in a good punch and kick every now and then, but I guess it wasn't enough to spare that diamond."

"What?" Gaz struggled to her feet. "Stayne's got the Blood Diamond? He's on his way to bring it to the Red Queen?"

"Either that or he's going to dress it up and call it his date, seeing as that is the best he could get, but I highly doubt that."

"We need to get it back." She slapped her hands to rid the dust from her skin and set about returning to the White Kingdom.

He grabbed her arm. "Whoa, hold your horses there, sweet heart. You aren't going anywhere."

"Hatter, we have to get that diamond back or—"

"—or else the Red Queen will become all powerful and mighty," he nodded. "I know, but your health is more important right now. If you don't rest up a bit first then you may not be up to fighting; and what is a hero if she can't fight?"

She did not speak for he lifted a finger to silence her inevitable objections.

"And I do not want to hear that you are no hero, 'cause I know better than that."

"We don't have time to rest up a bit, Hatter. Stayne is probably giving her the diamond right as we speak. If we don't warn the others now we will be too late."

"Look you are really cute when you are upset," he sighed, "but if I have to strap you to a bed, I am going to get you to rest."

The ground erupted, as though a volcano in the distance had gone off. They stumbled to catch their balance before glancing back towards the mountains lining the horizon. Far away they could see trees toppling over and birds scattering. Soon following, a tube of smoke wafted into the air. Screams cried out.

Gaz pointed a telltale finger at the horrific scene. "Do you still think there is time to rest?"

"Yeah, you're right. Let's go." He grabbed her arm and led her away.

"Your majesty!"

Tak was already staring out the window at the dark clouds approaching. She swiveled around to the Mad Hatter and Alice. The Hatter fell to his knees and bowed his head swiftly before placing the hat back on his head and nodding to the window, saying, "I take it you have already seen."

"Iracebeth has the Blood Diamond, but how?"

"She has it because her foolish knight, Stayne, whacked Gaz over the head and stole it from her."

"Who?"

"I mean Alice," he waved it off. "Your majesty, we need to alert the villagers of the kingdom. We need to bring them to safety."

"You are right. But this is it."

"Your majesty?"

"No more running." She stepped over to a suit of armor standing wait by the window. In his outstretched hands laid a gleaming sword, awaiting its keeper. She lifted it, the blade slicing the air. "I have tried to avoid this inevitable war with my sister for I thought that she would see her ways were foolish. Now I see that I was the one who was foolish for believing she could change." She stood before Gaz who hesitatingly raised her weary hands. The sword was placed onto her palms. "Now it is up to you, dear Alice. You will be the one to rid this kingdom of our greatest fear." She smiled warmly and glided a hand across her face. "You will be the one to free us."

Gaz swept the room with her eyes—from the sword to Zim, back to the Queen and returning to the sword—yet when all in the room expected the mighty hero to step forward, she shriveled back. Hatter frowned as he saw her fear returning. She shook her head while stumbling back. All eyes—the White Queen, Hatter, Tweedledee, Tweedledum, and the knights in the room watched her closely. They were curious, worried, but through her eyes they were mocking, scornful, doubting.

"I-I…"

Hatter blinked slowly at her. "Alice…"

"I…" She stared, horrified, at the reflection she saw in the sword; it was that of a frightened child, not a conquering warrior. "I can't!" her yell echoed from the hollow walls and the lines of the Queen's pitying frown. "It's not me. You have the wrong girl!" The sword was dropped and out of the room the girl ran.

The doors of the castle burst open and she ran, stopping at the only place that could present solitude: the garden.

She slowed to a pace and clutched her hair with anxiety. Her fingers fidgeted, scratched; anything to relieve the panic she felt within. She listened to the tapping of her shoes hitting each stone. She felt the breeze stroke her arms. She tried to ignore the thunderous beat of her heart, or was that the storm caused by the Red Queen? She could tell no longer.

"Why did it have to be me?" she questioned the sky. "I'm just an average girl. I can't fight. I can't wield a sword. I've never done anything like this in my life! How am I ever supposed to do this?"

"You're going to do this because we have a lot more confidence in you then even you have in yourself."

She turned. "Zim."

"Why do you doubt yourself still? You have proved yourself so many times, yet you still cannot trust that? What more do you need to know that you're the one?"

"I know you think it's me, but you're wrong. The Queen, the kingdom, you; you're all wrong!"

"Alice, you're a hero!"

"I'm just a girl trying to get home! That's it. If I could leave, go home right now, I would. I don't want to be a hero. I don't want to write this story. I'll just die trying. And then what? Then they will get a replacement that can actually defeat the Red Queen."

"That's not true, Alice. We need you. Without you, it's over. We're finished. You seem to think that you are expendable but you aren't. That is what I have been trying to tell you all along. Without you…" He trailed off. Her eyes searched him up and down as he said, "If you die, the kingdom falls."

Her shoulders slumped. "No pressure," she sighed.

"You are not going to do this alone. I'll be here with you. No matter what." He grabbed her hand. "I'll stay with you, even if it means I will die too."

She curled into his embrace and shook her head. "Whenever I was in the river, I think I died."

He glanced down at her the best he could, seeing as she was nestled into the crook of his neck. "What?"

"My mother, my father, I saw them. I even talked to them." she laughed. She wiped a tear away. "It all seemed so real. Too real. After all this time of believing my mother's death was something it wasn't, I finally found out the truth."

"Gaz, you're father is not dead."

She sat up and squinted. "I don't understand. I saw him. He was dying. Stayne showed me. He had a knife in his chest."

He shook his head. "I don't know who Stayne showed you, but it was not your dad. I know he is not dead. I asked the White Queen to show me your family because I knew you didn't need anything else to worry about and they were well alive. He was probably just doing that to get you when you were emotional."

"Well, he was right about one thing. He _did_ get me when I was vulnerable." She fingered a rose growing around the fenced edge. "But then why did I see my mother?"

"Who knows? It may have been an illusion; it may have been a memory."

"I don't think it was either. I think it was my mind telling me," she dropped the rose and watched it flutter to the ground, "to let go."

"Did you?"

"It hurts. I know it will for a while, but it's easier."

"Time will heal you."

She nodded and glanced up at him. She held him tenderly and whispered, "Promise me you won't leave."

He did not hesitate. "I promise."

She smiled lightly and retorted, "Till death do us apart?"

He chuckled. "Till death do us apart. You may now kiss the Irken."A kiss was placed lightly on his forehead. He swept his fingers down her cheek. He grasped her shoulders and pulled her back into view. Looking into her eyes, he said "I love you, Gaz, and I always will."

**A/N**

**Aw, I just love Zagr! Just a quick heads up, I am not completely sure but I think the story is almost over. There will probably be 1-3 chapters left. It's been fun ^-^**

**Now for ranting :3. Man, I am so upset! I just watched the last episode of ****Lost**** and I already miss it XD Oh, well. That's what YouTube fan made videos are for ;D**

**Chapter 29 will be up soon!**


	29. Chapter 29

A/N

Here is chapter 29!

A soft nudge shook her shoulder. She had just fallen asleep and it seemed as though only a few seconds had passed. She peeled her eyelids back to glare up at her disturber.

It was Zim.

"It's time," he whispered.

Immediately, she was awake. What was it that frightened her most? Was it the urgency in his tone, or the fact that she knew where they were leaving to? She had a feeling it was both. She certainly had more confidence now that she knew Zim was serious about remaining by her side, but there was still the true problem at hand; they were going to face the Red Queen and end it all, once and for all.

They did not have much time to organize their troops, so they gathered a committee and centered a meeting in the main lobby. Zim attended to the details while he suggested that Gaz rest for as long as she could. It was not long, she found, as only a half hour had passed in the meantime of her slumber.

She swung her legs over the edge of the bed. Not fretting with her messy hair, she slipped on her boots and trudged to the door. Exhaustion was no longer present in her tense, tight body.

She and Zim ran down the stairs to join the others at the front of the castle. They pushed the doors open and Gaz immediately spotted the White Queen standing wait by the edge of the garden.

"We have a plan for strategy and defense," the Hatter explained. "I'll explain it to you on the way. Tweedledee, Tweedledum?" The TweedleDibs saluted him respectively. "Present," he marked off in his head. "Cheshire?" Cheshire Dog vaporized into view, sword in hand. He offered it to Gaz who took hold of it firmly.

"Can't forget that now, can we?" he smiled, his teeth reflecting the moonlight. "We're here for you, Alice." He placed his paws on Tweedledee and Tweedledum's shoulders. "We _all_ are."

She nodded and they departed to join up with Tak. She smiled gingerly and ran a hand behind Cheshire's ears.

Hatter stepped into view, adjusting his trademark hat. "Nervous?"

"Not as much as I was before, but yeah," she admitted, "a little. You?"

"Ah, what's there to be nervous about? Just because we have a power-hungry queen right on our tails who wants to behead us doesn't concern me one bit," he laughed a little too forcefully. She crossed her arms and lifted her eyebrows accusingly. He shrugged innocently. "What?" he squeaked.

"All right," Tak called out. "Everyone gather around."

Alice, the Mad Hatter, Cheshire, Tweedledee, Tweedledum, and the White knights circled around. She crossed over and stepped up the stairs leading up to the palace. Her eyes scanned the faces of each individual.

"The time we have for so long dreaded has finally arrived. My sister is coming and she is more powerful than ever," she began.

Everyone fidgeted in some way; they shifted their weight to the other foot, they adjusted their bows and arrows, or they situated their armor.

"There is a rumor going around that she has finally acquired the Blood Diamond, which would mean she has the complete set of the four jewels. I am here to confirm this rumor. It is indeed true."

Murmurs and gasps fluttered about as each person faced one another in frenzied contemplation. "She is unstoppable with that diamond! Surely we will all perish! What will we do now? We need to hide, save the women and the children first!" The panicked statements were endless.

"There is no need for worry," Tak hushed.

"But, your majesty," one knight stepped forward. "Everyone knows that the Red Queen's power grows greatly with the possession of all four jewels."

"This is true, she will be more powerful," she nodded, "but that does not mean we shall fail. We can triumph and we can beat down this threat. They may strike fear into our hearts, but they can never take away our determination. "

A child stepped forward and tugged on her gleaming white dress. She peered down and smiled, but it quickly faded when the little boy said, "Daddy isn't coming home again, is he?"

She looked up into the crowd and saw a man holding his wife which cried in his arms. His frown was solemn, broken, but his eyes were strong and knew what was to come.

Her voice lowered tremendously. She nodded slowly, regrettably and said, "Not all of you will return. There will be losses, on both sides. You all have more courage than any other could hope for and with your sacrifice, you secure the future for our children."

Gaz glanced into the crowd at each person. Looking into their eyes, she found it difficult to accept that most of these men and women would not return. Each one had a life and a family of their own, yet because of the evil found in life, they were forced to put that all on the line just to protect the possible future they hoped to have.

"We thank you for your strength, loyalty, and the surrender you are giving us today. No matter what happens, the memory of this day will never be forgotten."

"My queen?"

She looked up at a man who stepped forward. He frowned and allowed the bitter tear to slide down his face, but stood tall and held his sword out proudly. "I am willing to sacrifice my life if it means that there is a chance for a better tomorrow."

Gaz and Zim watched as each person, one by one, withdrew their sword and held it to the sky, the blade gleaming. Tak sighed, shaking her head.

"I am just sorry that it had to come to this," she whispered.

"Tak?"

The White Queen had grown used to Gaz calling her by this odd name and nodded. Gaz stepped forward, still unfamiliar with the suit of armor she had been given. She squinted and stared back at Zim who blinked confusedly. She smiled at him before unsheathing her sword. Turquoise gems lined the border of the blade while the handle itself was made entirely from gold.

"I, too, am willing to die if it means that Wonderland is kept safe," she breathed. "We are going to end this tonight."

She did not expect the applause that broke out in thunderous waves. Tak grabbed her hand and led her to the top of the stairs where all could see.

"Our hero has come," she said to Gaz. To the crowd, she stated, "Violence is never the answer and I wish that there was a way that it did not have to come to this, but we must defend our kingdom."

Everyone chanted, raising their determination and voices above their doubts.

"We must defend our rights! We must protect the ones we love!"

Gaz was startled by the courage she felt radiating from the great crowd. Had she not been there herself, she would keep on believing that this courage only existed in fairytales. Though Wonderland was that of a fictional façade, the people and characters were still living, breathing beings. They could experience the joy of happiness, the burden of regret, and the agony of death.

"We will prevail!" Tak yelled finally.

The soldiers clapped and cheered. In the wild frenzy of fortitude, Gaz made her way through the crowd. She was about to make it to the Hatter when Tweedledee and Tweedledum jumped onto her. They hugged her warmly, encouraging her over and over again. They released her and followed the White Queen who was now seated on the back of a horse.

Gaz laughed and turned back to Zim who frowned, broken. She, too, grimaced. She walked over to him and took up his hands.

"Hatter?" she asked.

"I-I think it's finally setting in," he stuttered. He stared into her eyes with agony. "I may lose you, Gaz."

"Zim, you knew I had to do this. You said the only way to end this is to finish the story."

"I guess it just felt like it would never actually come. Now that it's here, though…"

The White Queen stepped off of her horse and retreated back to Alice and the Hatter to alert them that they were leaving. She stopped, though, and decided to leave them alone when she found Zim tightly embracing Gaz; for all she knew, this was the last chance they would get to be together.

Some things happened for the first time that night. One, Alice realized just how much courage she could actually have. And two, she had never before seen Zim cry like he did that night.

A**/N**

**Whew, sorry if this was not a good chapter. I am so tired right now, it isn't even funny. Hopefully it was good though.**

**I know this may be random, but I was wondering if I had any Danny Phantom fans out there? If so, you should check out a story I wrote a while ago called **_**Second Chance**_**. I was going through my stories and decided to reread that one and I don't know why, but I just thought I would share it with those of you who didn't have the chance to read it. Not trying to brag or anything, though XD!**

**Chapter 30 will be up shortly!**


	30. Chapter 30

**A/N **

**Man, this chapter is intense…**

**Enjoy!**

"Come on, Zim," she soothed. "It's time to go."

"We don't have to do this, Gaz," he mumbled.

"What?"

"We can go away, leave this all behind. Even if we can't leave Wonderland, we can still be together. We can start a new life here, and just avoid that war."

"Hatter," she sighed. "I can't. I want to, believe me, but we can't just leave these people hanging. They need all the help they can get right now."

"But why us? Why do we have to be the heroes?"

She shrugged. "The Knight in Shining Armor doesn't exist. And because nobody else is going to step forward."

He squinted at the crowd marching, their armor gleaming in the midnight moonlight. A bitter wind ruffled his wig while the spots of sky found between each cloud matched his cerulean eyes. Her ruffled dress rested against her legs and she shuddered quietly to which Zim propped his arms tightly around her, avoiding eye contact completely.

"You really care about them," he finally said, "don't you?"

"I know they're just characters from a story and this is the only time I'll ever see them, but it just doesn't feel right. I can't leave them behind to defend for themselves. They need us, Zim, and if it's true that I really am the hero, then I think it'd be better if I stuck around for a while."

"What about when all of this is over? What's going to happen to, you know, us?"

"Nothing will change," she stated. "You promised to stay by my side and I will do the same. You aren't going to get rid of me that easy," she nudged his arm with a smile.

He nodded and was about to speak when the ground shook violently. They held onto one another to maintain their balance. Everyone up ahead straddled the ground as they fell to their knees while the horses panicked and struggled to escape. Tak pushed her white hair aside and glanced forward, past the dust that floated from the ground.

Black smoke lingered, thunder clapping up ahead. The ground shattered and cracks crawled across the parched plain. The crevices became filled with crimson mercury as lava flowed in streams. Pebbles once at rest vibrated, a great force coming closer and closer. The air was filled with a hammering pound that grew louder with each second. Silhouettes appeared within the fog and immediately, the White Queen swiveled around to face her people.

"Ready yourselves!" her voice shouted above the beat of the hooves approaching.

Swords were unsheathed, shields were taken into view, and bows were charged with arrows. The Hatter and Alice marched to the front to Tak's side.

"They are so many," Tak breathed, "possibly thousands. Do you think we can hold?"

"Aye, my queen," Zim nodded slowly. "If the Irken military taught me anything it's that your numbers do not matter as much as your resources and willpower." He pointed his sword at the White knights standing guard behind him. "Numbers don't matter now."

The Red Queen rode in a silver carriage, the wheels wobbling sadistically against the already-shattered ground. The moon shuddered at the snake-like woman and wrapped its arms around the clouds, which were pulled into view. It hid its face and only came out in order to peer from the rounded corners.

"What are you fighting for, Gaz?"

She faced the Hatter questionably. "What, what do you mean?"

"You need motivation. Without that, you may as well lay down your sword now and let them take you. What are you fighting for? _Who_ are you fighting for?"

She nodded in understanding and counted them off. "I'm here for Dib, my dad, mom, these people," she stepped to the front lines and said lastly, "and you, Zim."

Taken aback by the mention of his name, he nodded and muttered, "That's my girl."

Tak slid off of her horse while Miss Bitters stepped out from her carriage. All soldiers on both sides remained as their queens walked to the center to stand before each other. Tak's white hair and white dress floated on the light breeze while Miss Bitters' blood-red robes and locks snapped and slashed at the air.

The White Queen breathed deeply and addressed her sister. "Iracebeth."

"Mirana," the Red Queen growled.

"It would seem that the time has finally come."

"So it has."

Tak frowned. "It doesn't have to be this way." Iracebeth glared her down while she spoke. "We are sisters, we can work this out." She extended her hand. "Please."

Her fists tightened, her face twisted. "No!" she shouted. "I am sick of living by the rules of my dearest little sister. From this day forth, I shall command Wonderland. This will be the last night of your rule, Mirana. Your kingdom will fall."

Their past was to be forgotten. No longer were they children. The days of laughter and frolicking in the meadows during summer nights were a broken illusion. Their mother saw the evil burning in the Red Queen's soul long before, and now it was time for the White Queen to see just that. Tak sealed her eyes shut with finality and they parted, backing away to their chosen paths; darkness and light a boundless battle.

"Sorry," the Mad Hatter passed to his queen.

"It must be this way," she replied.

The Red Queen snickered and extended a hand into the air. Four orbs of light crawled out from the shadows of her robes and somersaulted into the air. Gaz lifted her shield protectively as the light grew and struck Miss Bitters, birthing a newfound power within. The woman cackled, an emerald fog surrounding her. The moon grew dimmer and the stars shut down.

All was silent.

The men on each side, even the ones supporting the Red Queen shifted uneasily, waiting. Her eyes were shut for but a moment before her hand shot out and sent a lightning bolt their way. It struck a White knight who flew back. His armor clanked and clattered yet when he was at rest, his body was nothing but a pile of dust seeping through the metal.

Both sides broke and poured onto each other, swords clashing, screams echoing.

Gaz splashed her sword into the midst of bodies, landing a hit each time. Her blade drew a gash in the ribs of one, and sliced the throat of another. Something grabbed hold of her legs and threw them out from beneath her. She crashed to the ground, the breath puffing out. She squinted up in time to see a Red knight aiming his spear for her torso. She threw up her legs and kicked him in the face. He stumbled back, allowing her enough time to jump to her feet.

Her sword pierced his heart.

"Bloody wonder!" she heard the Hatter shout. "Where did you learn to fight like that?"

"I-I don't know," she admitted. "It's like I just know!"

He laughed, but grunted and hopped out of the way. A sword cut past his ears; he eyed it increasingly before sneering at the owner and kicking him out of the way.

"Your people cannot protect you now, Mirana," Iracebeth hissed. "You'll die, just like the rest of them."

"You may take my life, for all I care," her sister replied, "but you will not harm my people!"

Alice peered back to see the Red Queen charging another attack, directly at the White Queen. Her own hands full, she shouted to Zim, "Hatter, protect the queen!"

He nodded, but paused. She was fighting off two soldiers who towered over her. "But Gaz—!"

"I'll be fine," she grunted. "Just go help her!"

He hesitated, though sprinted over to the queen in time to jut his sword before the queen's face, reflecting the orb of light headed her way. The Red Queen growled, but followed Zim's line of sight which rested worriedly on Gaz.

"Oh," she hummed, "so you care about little Alice, do you?"

His eyes widened and he stumbled to his feet to rush to Gaz. Iracebeth sneered and her hand rose. A sword responded and floated into the air. It shook harshly and took aim.

"Gaz," Zim screamed, "look out!"

Spinning on her heals, time froze. She stumbled back, eyes wide. She gasped and her hands twitched up. Blood dribbled onto her feet and she looked down, directly at the sword piercing her stomach.

**A/N**

**O.O Uh-oh…Major cliffhanger. I better run before the fans come to kill me for this xD**

**So anyways, I hope you liked the chapter. I am loving the action in it :3.I hope it wasn't too forced, but not lagging either.**

**Chapter 31 will be up tomorrow!**


	31. Chapter 31

**A/N **

**This is the mega chapter! Man, this took long! But it was worth it! This is the main finale of the story so enjoy! There will probably be about two more chapters after this.**

**To Prussia, I cannot send a PM to you because it does not allow me, but about your question of making a comic of my story, yes you may :) Just, of course, give credit to the story :) And if you could, send me a message or a review saying that you recieved this !**

**Have fun!**

"No!" Zim dropped to his knees to where Gaz lay. His eyes widened at the amount of blood that flowed from her stomach.

She coughed, scarlet fluid leaking down her lips. Her eyes fluttered to regain focus. "Z-Zim?" she called, clutching his hand.

"I'm here, I'm here," he whispered.

Her head lifted just enough to see the blade cutting into her. She fell back, panting. "It hurts so bad." Tears spilled onto her cheeks as she gasped to catch her breath. "This can't be happening," she stuttered, "It wasn't supposed to happen this way."

"I never meant for this to happen. I'm so sorry," he muttered. "Forgive me? Forgive me."

Her eyes widened. She lifted a hand to brush his face. "Dad?"

He pulled away, stunned. "Gaz? No, no, Gaz it's me. It's Zim."

"I know you didn't kill Mom. It was an accident."

He sighed and frowned. "I'll get you fixed up, okay? You're going to be okay. We'll get through this together."

She shook her head, realizing it was Zim once more. "D-Don't leave me, please," she begged. Her shoulders shook as she sobbed gently. "Please, don't leave me."

"I'm not going anywhere," he shook his head. "I'll stay with you, always."

She squinted to see him. His face was blurring, fading. The sight of that around her was twisting. Darkness began to pour in; overflowing throughout and consuming her world. "Promise?" she groaned.

"I promise."

She nodded. Her eyes rolled up as she stared up at the sky.

"You're going to be okay, Gaz," he said, pulling her head onto his lap. "Gaz?"

Her eyes were shut.

In the midst of the battle, Tak managed to escape the Red Queen so that she, too, joined Alice's side.

"Is she…dead?" he breathed.

Tak slid a finger beneath her nose for a moment."No, she is breathing."

"Why isn't she moving then?"

"She must have passed out from the trauma. We need to get her somewhere safe. There, take her to the shelter of that tree."

He followed her gaze and shook his head. "A tree? No, she needs more than that! Where is the doctor?"

"Aiding the others who are wounded. I will go fetch him."

"Hurry!"

He parted her hair, bringing her closer gently. He kissed her forehead lightly and did his best to smile for her. Though, she did not respond. He pushed his head to her and enveloped his fingers within her hair.

He cried.

She woke up screaming, shielding her body. When she realized nothing was to happen, she searched for the blade that was cutting into her stomach. It was no longer there. There was no blood on her dress— no evidence of the attack that had inflicted the wound upon her body was seen. Crimson was not found anywhere. In fact, there was no color at all. Her dress was black and white and when she pulled a mass of her own hair into view, she found that it was no different.

Now standing, she glanced about. Darkness was all around and she could see nothing else, except for the light which shined from above; just like from before.

"I'm back?" she asked, her words echoing.

When she stepped forward, her foot hit something hollow. Glancing down, she picked up the Hatter's hat. The card sticking from the ribbon wrapped round it no longer had the Irken symbol proudly stamped on it. Instead it had her name scribbled across.

She felt as though she were in an old horror film. Her world was now black and white, shadows littered the realm surrounding her for as far as she could see, and she was in the midst of solitude. Last time, there were at least doors and memories of those she had met from before. Nothing remained this time.

A chair was dragged across the floor. Its wooden legs squeaked and scrawled, sending a wave down her spine. A thud followed and then another chair was hulled away. She peered through the shadows in search of the odd sounds, yet could see nothing.

"Is anyone there?" she called.

Silhouettes came into view. From the long mane that hung down their back, she assumed it was a woman. The lady bent over and hulled something into view before resting it on the chair which was then dragged across the floor to join the other chairs; they remained in an incomplete circle.

The oddest of the scene, though, was that the woman was colored. She was not black and white like the rest of the realm. Instead, she had violet hair, black sandals, and a red summer dress. The fabric blew loosely as though the room was windy. Alice could feel nothing.

Gaz watched her liquid movement a moment longer before stepping behind her. She awaited the voice she was sure she would hear, but the woman remained silent. She hummed gradually as she continued her work.

It was then that the girl realized just what the woman was lugging around. They were corpses. The skeletons from the last time she was here, to be precise. The doctors and the children of her former youth were present, yet she did not see her father.

Instead of debating what was occurring, she asked, "Who are you?"

The woman chuckled and turned slowly. While she smiled warmly, Gaz gasped.

"Hello, Gaz," the woman sighed. "I've missed you so much."

"No, no," she backed away. "You're dead. I know you are. This is impossible."

"How is it impossible, honey?"

"Because I held your hand when you died, Mom!"

The woman's eyes frowned, yet she remained staring at her daughter. "Who else would I be?"

"The last time I was here, I saw the child of me. Anything can happen here it seems."She sat down, back facing the woman.

"And there is no way for me to prove to you that I really am your mother?" she asked, sitting beside her.

Her lips tightened into a line. "If you really are her then I suppose you would know a little bit about me."

"I suppose I would."

"What is my favorite color?"

"Your favorite _colors_ are black and purple."

"My middle name?"

"Marie."

She nodded slowly.

"Anything else?" she asked with humor in her voice.

"What used to scare me the most when I was a little girl?"

She laughed lightly as she recalled. "Do you mean after you overcame your fear of the Halloween statue we had sitting on the back porch or before?" The woman received a pattern of startled blinking, followed by an unending silence. "I remember how afraid you were the first time you saw it. You didn't like the fact that it moved or had red eyes. You held onto my legs so tightly, I thought you would never let go."

"I was three years old, wasn't I?" She twisted her skirt between her hands and shook her head. "Besides that, what else scared me?"

"The thought of going on without me."

Her throat tightened and she swallowed hard. "Go on."

"Whenever your father and I finally worked up enough courage to tell you that 'Mommy was sick' you stomped your foot and told us to quit lying, that it wasn't a funny joke." She smiled as she explained, and then the smile vanished. "And when you found out that we were telling the truth, that I really was dying, you curled onto my lap and asked me to sing to you."

Gaz looked away. Hearing it was like reliving it all over again. She could hear the crackle of the fire burning in the fireplace, the smell of the dinner burning in the oven—they each had their hands full with the news to care about whether or not the meat loaf was black—, and she could feel each individual thread of her mother's dress as she held onto her tightly while her mother rocked her back and forth, back and forth.

"I asked you why you wanted me to rock you, that I needed to explain more, and all you said was 'I already know what's going to happen.'" She sniffled and breathed tightly. "And when I asked you what was going to happen to your mommy, you said 'You're going to leave me, right?'"

Gaz clenched her jaw until it ached. The tears slipped down to her chin and dripped onto her dress. Her stomach trembled out as she cried gently into her hand. She faced her mother and said, "I want to believe that it's you. I really do. But I am just so sick of being let down over and over again."

A hand cupped her face and the voice whispered, "It's me, Gaz."

She tightened her eyes and, now realizing, choked, "I miss you so much, Mom."

Her mother grabbed hold of her and swayed back and forth, back and forth; just like when she was a child. "I miss you too, sweetie."

"I'm sorry I didn't believe you."

"I don't blame you, honey. You can't tell what's real and what isn't in this place. I'm just glad you know now."

"I'm so confused, Mom. There are so many questions I have and I don't know where to look for the answers."

She pulled her back, tilting her head. "Maybe I can help you."

"I don't even know where to begin. Dib, what about Dib? Is he safe?"

"Your brother is fine, Gaz."

"And that thing I saw in the Forest of Doubt, was it real? Did that really happen between Dad and Dib?" She shrugged. "Did Dad really skip out on looking for me?"

Her mother did not reply; it was enough to answer the question. After a moment of silence, she said lowly, "Your father is trying the best he can."

It was Gaz's turn not to answer.

Her mother sighed. "But his best was never enough, was it?"

"I just wish he would have come home more often." She glanced up and nodded to the corpses seated on the wooden chairs. "What about them? Why are they here, and why were you centering them like that?"

"They are here because you've learned to let go, Gaz. Before, they were alive and talking to you but now they are nothing but frozen mannequins, mere statues. They will never move or think or talk again. They'll be that way forever."

"Then if I have moved on, why are they here instead of just disappearing or something?"

"They're still here because you will always remember what happened the last time you were here. You may have let go, but they will always be a memory in one way or another."

She rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Oh, joy."

Her mother smiled. "It'll get easier with time."

"There was a man at the castle. He was very odd. He would say my name over and over, like he was trying to make sure I was the right person."

"He was the same man that left you in the river to die."

"Stayne?"

She nodded.

"But he was posing as Dib. Why bother with some cheesy story about being a new guard for the White Queen."

"He was hoping to get closer to you without enduring an entire masquerade, but he found out that my little girl was too clever for him," she said, stroking a hand down her daughter's hair, "so he thought he would pose as your brother to gain your trust quicker."

"Creep," she grunted.

"Now," her mother stood and dusted her hands off, then she held it out to Gaz. Gaz blinked down at it before staring questionably up at her, "aren't there more important questions on your mind?"

She took her hand and nodded. "Why me?"

"Because your little boyfriend was right—" Gaz blushed at that. "—you were the perfect one for the job. You were separate from everyone else."

"Yeah, because I was an outcast," Gaz pointed out dully.

"You are not an outcast," she scolded quickly before continuing. "He saw something in you that nobody else had."

"I know, I know, 'a hope to save all of Wonderland'. Yeah, he said the same thing, but I don't know how. We were in the middle of a battle and then I was stabbed and—wait. Mom?"

"Yes, dear?"

"Am I…dead?"

"No," she sighed, "but you came close to it. A little too close."

"But you really are gone, aren't you…?"

She smiled. "Nothing's changed, sweetheart. I'm still gone and you're still alive. That doesn't mean I can't be with you, though."

"So then how is it that all of this is happening? How am I able to talk to you? If I am not dead, and you—" she did not finish the sentence. Her mother knew what she was struggling to say.

"You have come very close to dying, Gaz. You are on the brink of death as we speak. But it's not your time, not yet. You are still very young and you have a full life ahead of you."

"So we're going to be leaving each other soon."

She took in the image of Gaz and strung in a handful of her hair within each palm. Each violet strand slid through her fingers. Her eyes were sad even though her face smiled. Gaz nodded in understanding. Staring down at her dress, she noticed the color was returning. Off in the distance, she saw that the Hatter's hat now had color also. The shadows lightened as the shinning ray coming from the heavens brightened.

"Was it me?" her thoughts whispered aloud.

"What?"

"Am I the reason you died, Mom? Please, tell me the truth."

"No," she stated, shaking her head, "and it wasn't your father's fault either. I never want you blaming yourselves. It was just something that happened."

There were so many more questions weighing down her mind, yet she found she was speechless as the light above grew brighter and brighter. The chairs, the skeletons, and the Hatter's hat faded from view. All that remained was her mother, still smiling.

"It's time to go, Gaz." She pointed to a door that appeared near her. "You have to finish what's been started."

"Mom, no, I have so many things I need to ask you! Please, don't go."

She led her daughter over to the door, opening it. She grabbed her hand to guide her in. Her mother embraced her tightly and pulled her hair back, whispering, "I'll stay with you. No matter what."

The door was closed and everything fell dark.

"I'll stay with you. No matter what. Okay, Gaz?"

"Ugh…Mom?"

"Alice, open your eyes."

She did, and found Zim, Tak, and a man circled closely round her. With a bandage wrapped around her stomach and the remainder of the roll resting in the man's hand, she assumed he was a doctor. He swished a glass of green fluid between his fingers, handing it to Gaz.

"Drink this," he commanded rather stuffily.

She did; it was awful. It burned the lining of her throat, causing her to choke and gag. She often wondered if it would have been better to deal with the effect of not taking the medicine; it certainly could not have been worse than having such a liquid slither down her throat.

"Believe it or not, it's supposed to help you," Zim attempted to help.

"How are you feeling, dear?" Tak asked.

"Like I was gutted by a boar," she grumbled.

"You practically were," the bitter Irken remarked.

"Wait, where am I?" she asked. It was too quiet to be in the middle of a war. She glanced over and saw that they were far away from the imposing battle. Hollers and sword's clanks rang out indistinctively.

"We had to get you out of there so that you weren't harmed even more than you already were," the Hatter informed.

She stood up, wobbly, grabbing hold of the uprooted tree that lay on its side for support. Her hand scratched the fallen sword resting beside her against the ground in retrieval. "I have to go back," she huffed, "they need all the help they can get."

"Hang on a second there," Zim said, standing up to hold her back. "You are in no condition to fight now."

"But it doesn't even hurt." She removed the bandage. "See?"

Zim and Tak blinked questionably.

"Well, I'll be," the doctor exclaimed.

"W-What happened to her wound?" Tak stuttered. "It's gone!"

"That's some medicine you gave her, doc," Hatter whistled.

Sure enough, there was not a sign of any infliction upon her.

The doctor denied any assistance in the healing. "It wasn't anything I did. The medication was only to help with the pain." He pulled a magnifying glass over her skin to search for the wound, yet found not a trace. "I-I don't understand," he admitted.

"Well, whatever happened I am taking advantage of it," Gaz determined. "Come on, Hatter. It's time to end this."

He trotted up to her as the distance between the pair grew with her long, rhythmic strides. "Hold up, Alice. I don't think you understand the situation."

"The Red Queen is powerful and if we don't destroy her, she'll destroy us first."

"No, not that." He pointed at the battlefield. "_That_."

She stopped dead in her tracks. With the battle not too far away, she could clearly see the numbers of each side, both the Red and the White kingdom, and it was not good. While the White knights fought without stopping, the Red knights simply stood waiting for their foe to be finished. The Red Queen alone was killing off the number of the White cards with ease. The Red cards no longer had to battle for the scuffle was predestined because of the Red Queen's newfound power.

"Almost all of the White knights are dead," she finally said.

"Exactly," he sighed, "and if we rush into it just like that, we'll be joining them."

"The crystals, we need to take them away from her."

"Easier said than done, love. If it was as simple as that, then we would have taken it away from her long ago."

Her mind searched for a possibility as to overcome the Queen, or at least separate her from one of the jewels. Even if they could only get one of the gems away from her, that would be enough to cease her flow of power. The only question left remaining was how to do just that.

Her eyes skimmed across the plain. Time was running out, and quickly at that. With each second that ticked by, more and more White cards dropped. It did nothing to relieve the pressure on the already-pressing matter.

What or who could serve as a distraction, an excuse to switch the Queen's focus somewhere else? Well just as she was pondering the question, Tweedledee, Tweedledum, and Cheshire appeared out of the crowd of fallen bodies and struggling soldiers. Cheshire dragged Tweedledee and Tweedledum by their thumbs and dropped them in a helpless heap.

"You two are lucky that I am here, or else you would be swimming with the fishes by now!" Cheshire panted.

The TweedleDibs looked at one another and whooped excitedly."We like fishies!" they exclaimed.

"Of course you do," he groaned.

"Cheshire! Tweedles!"

"Oh, for joy! Alice, we feared you to be dead!"

"So did I, Cheshire. How are you faring so far?"

"Ugh, not too good, Hero. Already we've lost over half our numbers!"

"If we aren't careful," Tweedledum whimpered, "we'll be next!"

She bent down to their levels and gradually slipped their hands into hers. "Do you think you could do me a favor?" When they blinked innocently, uncertainly, she took up their silence to continue. "We can win this but I will need your help, everyone's help. I have a plan, and you guys are needed to accomplish it. You think you are up for the job?"

"Yes?" they answered tentatively, more in a question then in a reply. "No? We don't know!"

Hatter picked them each up by the collars. "There is no time for uncertainty now!" He shook them back and forth. "Do you want to win this thing, or do you want your rears mounted above her fireplace?"

"Our rears?"

"Your rears."

They cringed, whined and trembled. "We don't want to lose our rears!"

"Then I suggest you get said rears into the flow and listen to Alice's plan."

Gaz raised an eyebrow. "You haven't even heard my plan yet."

"I know, but if you're willing to put this much effort into it, I know it is at least worth a shot," he winked.

Tak galloped over on her white horse and slid off. "Well now, it looks like you have finally gotten the confidence you have deserved to have in yourself this entire time." She nodded and smiled. "We'll follow your lead, Alice."

"So then, what do you need us to do?" Cheshire piped up.

She smirked.

A crater formed in the ground from the last shot fired by the Red Queen. The men once standing there had been reduced to ashes seeping into the cracks. She cackled and spun around to face the rest of the White kingdom. Yet before she could get to them, she heard the galloping of a horse approaching.

Tak whipped the reins harshly—she then rubbed the horses neck apologetically for being too rough, for it was against the White Queen's vows to harm any living creature— and the horse skidded to a stop, right in front of the Red Queen who smirked with an uncouth sneer.

"So first you run away and abandon your people, only to return after so many have already been lost. How exactly will you explain that to the children of the parents who now lay dead, hmm sister?"

"I did not run way, Iracebeth," Mirana replied. "I've come to stop you, to end all of this. I have given you more than enough time to cease this mindless manslaughter, but it is now too late for you."

"You really believe your foolish little threats frighten me?" She scoffed. "I would deal with you myself if I did not believe you to be a waste of my time. Stayne!" A black horse ran past to which Stayne leaped off, landing next to the Red Queen. "Finish her," she commanded.

"With pleasure, your majesty."

He did not realize that directly behind him, Tweedledee and Tweedledum were hoarding the survivors and leading them away to safety. Yet he did realize that as he raised his sword and sprinted towards the White Queen, she did not budge nor did she run. She simply stared.

"Fool! Are you so dense that you do not see death even when it is heading straight towards you?"

"You are not the bringer of death here," she sighed.

He growled and raced towards her, sword plunged and aimed. She grimaced a pitying frown, and this baffled him. He did not have time to ponder her reaction, though. He gasped and looked down, right at the sword stabbing through his back and out his rib cage. Falling, he stumbled to glare upon his killer.

Tak nodded. "He is."

"That's for your queen stabbing Gaz," Hatter hissed.

His body fell with a hollow thud and his eyes starred up at the sky, lifeless. Tak walked over, knelt down, and ran a hand across his eyelids to close them. She then turned back to Zim and asked, "Where's Cheshire?"

"Present," he hummed, vaporizing into view.

"Okay," Zim nodded, "you know what to do."

He smiled his famous grin before morphing. He took on the appearance of Stayne. Everything was identical, from his hair to his armor all the way down to the scar running across his heart-covered eye. Hatter cringed at the resemblance.

"Just make it quick," he groaned. "I can barely stand to look at the face of Stayne again."

"Make sure you don't do to me like you did to him," he pointed at the body of the real Stayne. "Now, where's Alice."

Tak turned her head in every direction. "If all is going according to plan, she should be with the Red Queen who is…" she stopped and pointed. "…over there."

The Red Queen walked about, looking for the White knights. They were nowhere to be seen. It were as though they had vanished!"

"Right into thin air," she reflected in consideration.

"Hey!"

The Queen spun on her heels to face the voice.

"Looking for me?" Gaz spat.

"You," she growled. "I thought you were dead."

"You can't get rid of me that easily."

"Then I suppose I will just have to try harder." She lifted her hand, causing an orb of energy to form within her palm. Laughing, she aimed it at a tree which towered dangerously high above Alice. It split in half, toppled over, and plummeted straight for her. Gaz ran and dived, rolling out of the way just in time. More branches followed, just barely hooking onto the fabric of her dress.

She found that her armor was slowing her down. It was much too big for her, and soon it would be her downfall. And whoever heard of a knight wearing a dress with armor atop it? She would have changed back at the castle, yet the kingdom had been taken off its guard when the Red Queen gained her powers, and she highly doubted there would be any clothes to be found that actually fit her, seeing that most of the beings there were cards. Surely a mistake she would probably regret, still she slipped the armor off before running back into the fight.

Emerald lightning bolts grew and were sent her way. She scooped a shield from the body of a fallen warrior, and apologized to the corpse before hitching a ride on top of it. Her feet remained perched in balance as she slid down the slope of a hill. She jumped into a ravine just in time to dodge the bolts.

Panting, her hands clawed up to the surface and dug into the dirt which crumbled away. Her feet stepped into the groves of the dirt, allowing her to step up onto sturdy land. She was face-to-face with Miss Bitters once more.

"It would seem that I have underestimated you," the woman bellowed.

"A lot of people do," she replied, "but what I find worse is that I have doubted myself more than anyone else. I now see how wrong I was."

The Queen twirled, her dress dancing with Gaz's razor edge. The red fabric harmonized with the blood staining her blade in a horrific, twisted melody. She managed to evade each hit; so did Alice.

"Perhaps you were not as wrong as you thought," she snapped. Like a bullet, she launched a wave of daggered cards Gaz's way.

"Or maybe," she growled. She jumped and fell onto her back, the edge of the bladed cards slashing against her sword, "I'm just where I'm meant to be." Her weapon was disposed of and in her hands she now held a bow and arrow.

"You are even more foolish than I thought," Miss Bitters snarled.

"Or maybe you should cut the verbal jousting and pay attention!" Zim's sword swooped over her head as she ducked just in time. He grinned. "Miss me?" He chortled madly. "I await the sight of your bloodshed!" His eyes grew red.

"Hatter, focus," Gaz warned when she realized he was losing control.

Miss Bitters raised an eyebrow. "Oh, so you have an unpredictable side to you? Well, why don't I show you just how dangerous that can be."

Zim froze and his body stiffened. His mouth dropped opened while his hands floated by his sides, unmoving.

Gaz lowered her bow cautiously. "Zim?"

His breath grew shallow and soon his hands began to tremble. They relaxed before tightening into a fist. He faced her, his eyes no longer blue but a fiery crimson red. With eyebrows furrowed and eyes remaining fixed upon her, he said distantly, "Perhaps it is _your_ blood that I crave to see." He yelled, whipping his blade down.

Gaz gasped and fell out of the way. He was certainly much quicker than the Queen. And he did not stop there. He straightened his hat and stalked towards her.

"What have you done to Hatter?" she accused of the Queen.

"I am simply adding a bit of a twist to this fight," she chuckled and added, "He is under my control now."

Tak rode up. She faced Zim who sneered callously. "Alice!"

"No, Tak, you have to get out of here! Take the others to safety. I'll be fine."

"Alice," she frowned. Her horse whinnied and pulled back as Zim's lancet slashed just past its throat. Tak gasped.

"Go!" Gaz said.

She nodded after a while and galloped away. *

"How noble of the precious Alice," Hatter taunted, "to think of the others before herself." He dragged his blade across a rock, producing an awful _screech_. "Fear not, I will simply slay your friends after I am through with you."

She stumbled back, nearly tripping as she found she was in the ravine once again. Zim smirked and dug his boot into the crevice of a mass of boulders. With one move, he sent a rockslide her way. Her legs carried her as fast as they could as she ran past fallen trees and shriveled shrubbery. He walked calmly, hands behind his back, on the edge of the cliff, watching. When he saw that she emerged unharmed, he hissed.

"Why do you cling to life when you know I will kill you?"

"Zim, you've got to snap out of it," she panted. "Come on, there's got to be some part of you that remembers me."

His eyes narrowed. "I recall no other than the Red Queen." He jumped into the ravine to join her. "Your time has come, Gaz."

"Obviously there is a part of you that remembers me or you would have called me Alice," she retorted. "Think back. Not even ten minutes ago, I almost died in your arms. You can't say that didn't mean anything to you."

He frowned and glared away. "I-It doesn't matter now."

"I don't want to hear it." She walked towards him. He jumped and slid his sword to her throat. She blinked down at it before staring back up at him. "You said we had to finish this story together. That will never happen if one of us dies here."

A drop of blue fell back into his eyes, yet still they remained distant. "You've got to get out of here, Alice," he whispered, "before I..."

"We'll get out of here together."

"No!" The Red Queen shouted. "Obey me! Do not listen to the girl. Obey me!"

He groaned and gripped his temples, shaking his head. "I don't know who to listen to!"

"Listen and obey me," she spat.

He faced Gaz who simply shrugged. "You have to make a choice, Zim. You can either let her make the decisions for you, or you can stand up and make them yourself."

He stared up at the Queen. "I…"

She growled, raising her hand. He doubled over and clenched his head. Gaz saw it coming before he even reacted and tried to move away, yet failed to do so in time. He swiveled around and dug his shoulder into her chest, knocking her to the ground. When she opened her eyes, he had the handle of his sword right before his face as he prepared to dive it straight into her torso.

Miss Bitters laughed. "Did you really think he could resist my commands? Once one is under my control, there is no getting out. They either kill or are killed. Either way, death is the only answer."

Zim furrowed his eyebrows. "I'm sorry," he muttered.

She stared, petrified, terrified. Looking him up and down, she said, "So am I." Lying back, she squinted her eyes shut.

Right as he was about to plunge his weapon down, he stopped. Images flashed through his head. Seeing her this way, her eyes closed as she awaited the death he was delivering, he was brought back to the moment of her close encounter with death from before. He saw the memory of her lying in his arms as he pleaded for her to survive. He thought she was going to die when the Queen had stabbed her. Now he was to be her murderer?

He breathed out slowly in thought. "Death is the only answer?" he whispered in question. Gaz opened her eyes. She glanced up at him incredulously. He slowly smiled at her before saying, "Death is the only answer." He squeezed his eyes shut and stabbed his sword into his chest.

**A/N**

**You may now proceed with yelling obscenities at me for leaving you with this cliffhanger XD **

**I thought this chapter was pretty epic. Hopefully you did too ;) I think it tied up a lot of loose ends and answered many questions that hadn't been answered yet, such as who was the man in the suit of armor who repeatedly called Gaz Alice to make sure he was speaking with the right person. **

**Chapter 32 shall be up soon!**


	32. Chapter 32

**A/N**

**Enjoy! I don't think this is the last chapter. There will probably be a short epilogue or something. Have fun!**

"Zim!" Gaz leapt up, only to fall to his side.

He groaned and nodded. "It's okay, Gaz." He found a way to smile. "We have to finish this story, right?"

"I said we have to finish it _together_," she snapped, gripping his hand. "Why did you do that, Zim?"

"If I hadn't I would have…I would have…"

"No, no. You wouldn't have done anything, I know you wouldn't have. Come on, you're going to be okay." She wrapped her hands hesitantly around the handle of the blade. "We need to pull it out, okay?"

He sighed. "This is going to feel dandy." When she barely lifted it, he gasped sharply. She apologized and let it loose. "No, it's okay. It has to come out sometime." He gulped, but then she saw his eyes widen as he stared behind her. Right as she was about to turn around, he breathed out ruggedly. "And what better time than the present?" he said before tearing the sword out. He screamed, yet immediately pulled Gaz atop of him and swung the weapon over her shoulder defensively. "Get back!" he cried.

Gaz glared up at the Red Queen who glowered angrily.

"You just refuse to die," she spat, "don't you?"

"You stay away from us," Hatter hissed.

Behind the queen, Stayne rode up on his black horse. He slid off and, tugging on his gloves, joined her side. Gaz was not sure whether or not her plan had worked out; if it really was Stayne or just Cheshire in disguise, like she was hoping it to be. She raised her eyebrows in question, yet he remained emotionless—he was acting a little too identical to the real Stayne to be anyone else.

"Look at you," Miss Bitters scoffed. "The two great heroes now lay on the ground trying to protect one another. How romantic. But unfortunately, I was never one for a love story. Stayne?"

He nodded.

"I'll let you have your choice. Would you rather finish off the hatter or the girl?"

"Hard choice, your majesty," he hummed. He rubbed his chin contemplatively, his eyes scanning from each one. Gaz tightened her grip around Zim; Zim remained, arm protruding defensively. "But to be honest," he finally said, slipping a dagger out of his pocket, "I don't choose either."

The Red Queen blinked confusedly at Stayne. "What are you saying?" she demanded to know.

He chuckled. "I'm saying," he grabbed her shoulder, and pressed her directly into his dagger, "I'd much rather chose you."

Miss Bitters stumbled back, falling to the ground. The impact dislodged the four jewels from her crown and pitter-pattered to the dirt. Each one—the Blood Diamond, Sapphire Spade, Ruby Heart, and Garnet Club—rolled to a stop by Stayne's foot to which he scooped up, winking mockingly at the queen.

"Cheshire!" Gaz exclaimed.

He vaporized, returning to his usual form. Floating over to Zim and Gaz, he bent over and ran a paw over Hatter's stomach. His eyes frowned. No longer did he smile but instead, he sighed and rested his head on his chest. Staring up at Zim, he whispered, "Master?"

Zim chuckled quietly. "It's going to be okay, Gir."

Gaz shook her head. "How does he remember you? I thought you said they just resembled the people we knew; that they weren't actually them?"

Zim smiled affectionately at his little green dog. "He remembers," he said slowly, "because now, he _is_ Gir." She still did not understand. He sighed calmly, closing his eyes. "It means you're going home, Alice."

She gripped his shirt until he opened his eyes. "_We're_ going home," she stated.

He shook his head. "It's too late for me." He nodded down at his wound. "It's one minute too late, I would say."

She shook her head. "No, you can't do this. You promised."

"Gaz—"

"You promised!"

He frowned. All he could say was "I'm sorry."

"You said you would stay with me." She shook his hand. "Are you trying to say you lied to me?"

"I wanted to stay with you. Really, I did."

"Then chose to stay with me."

"It's not that easy, Gaz."

"_Make_ it that easy."

"Alice."

She faced Cheshire. He nodded back to Miss Bitters. "I will allow you to decide her fate," he said, handing her the sword. He gave the four jewels to her; they were immediately passed to Hatter.

She stood, crossing over to join the Red Queen's side. Miss Bitters breathed shallowly as she glared upon her vanquisher. Her dress wafted deadly in the breeze, every thread scratching the dirt. Her empty crown, no longer cradling the jewels, rocked on its side. It reflected the sun that was rising gently in the sky and casted an illuminated patch across the blade of her sword which rested uncertainly in her hands.

Staring at the queen, she budged not.

"Do it," the woman growled.

Gaz peered over her shoulder and found Tak standing nearby. Her hands were wrapped tightly around one another while her eyes stared conclusively. She blinked up at Alice who simply frowned. The White Queen gazed down at the ground and removed her crown, no longer looking.

Taking one final look at the queen, she lifted her arm and drove the lancet down. The Red Queen squinted her eyes shut, yet found nothing was happening. She opened her eyes into slits, staring incredulously. The sword had pierced the dry dirt, just centimeters away from her throat.

"I'm not you," Gaz stated, leaving.

The White Queen ran over to her sister and soothed her hair back. She nodded and began working at the dagger that pinned her shoulder to the ground. "It'll be quick," she assured.

"Why are you doing this?"

She faced her sister. "Because no matter what, you are still my sister." She ripped a strip of cloth from her skirt and dressed the hole puncturing her flesh.

"You have the chance to end it all. Are you so foolish to let your enemy live?"

"You are not my enemy."

Her eyes rolled up lifelessly, though she was not dead. She stared down the sky and clouds passing over. "What next?"

"We are no longer children," Tak sighed. "If we we're, then your punishment would be going to bed without supper."

"We are no longer children…" the Red Queen breathed. "A lifetime in jail is not a night without supper, is it?"

Tak remained silent.

"Execution?"

Her sister shook her head.

A tear slid past her eye, dead. Never had she imagined it ending this way; with her heels resting on the ground as she stared up at the sky, a dagger in her arm and a life sentence on her shoulders.

Gaz stroked Zim's face as he rested on her lap. He smiled up at her. Her eyes died.

"And my heart is breaking," she whispered to him.

"I love you," he breathed, coughing

She kissed his lips. He grabbed her hands.

"You're giving me a taste of my approaching heaven."

She closed her eyes. "You can't leave me."

"Some may say I am as mad as a hatter for falling for you." He breathed out slowly after saying, "I'll deal with the insanity."

Their fingers interlaced.

"Do you regret it?" he asked.

"I regret nothing about you," she replied. "Except…"

"Except…?"

"Except I'll never know your dreams. I'll never see your smile. I'll never know what hurts you. And I can never tell you how sorry I am."

He smiled, groaning at the pain caused by it. "Well, I suppose I should start then, shouldn't I?" He perched her closer, minding the blood seeping through his brown jacket. "You don't have to be sorry for anything. I gave my life for you, and I'd gladly do it again." He plucked one jewel at a time from his pocket as he spoke. "This hurts me, that's for sure," he chuckled bitterly, pointing a thimble to his gash. "But what hurts me more is to see you cry." He shook his head. "I never wanted to be the reason for your pain."

His hand was clenched and placed at her face. Through tight eyes, the tears slipped past.

"And you can see me smile again. See?" He smiled. Though it hurt, he smiled—for her. She laughed and nodded resentfully. "And my dream?" He caressed her face down to his chest. "You."

Her shaky hands grabbed the jewels from his extended hand. Protect them, he said. Think of it as a souvenir, he tittered. I love you, Gaz, he whispered.

_I love you._

Promise me, her words echoed. Promise you won't leave me. Promise? You promised. Do not lie to me by breaking this promise.

Her hand scrawled her name 'cross his chest. He rested his head back.

_Do not fear, love. Though you see me not, I still stand near. Feel my hand caress your cheek. Cry your agony of my absence; I will catch each tear and hold on tight. A statue you have become, waiting. Waiting. Your hands, folded perfectly, claw out at the door as you swing it open, hoping to greet me. They just look like me. They are not me. They never will be. Yet you still open that door. And with restless eyes, you'll stare out the window in wait for me. I will no longer come. Do not stop time for me—time is dead in my mind. I no longer exist, but forever my love will. Fly for me, love. Fly for us. My angel you have become. Consume me with your ivory wings. Serenade my pain away. Death is a penalty that tortures me so. Yet with you I will remain, wherever you go. _

His eyes slid shut. She did not move. She did not run. She simply said, "You lied."

With her head remaining glued to his chest, she lifted both arms to his shoulders. Her hands walled against his arms and lifted her up. She kissed his eyelids.

"I love you too, Zim," she whispered.

A great light shook Wonderland. Everyone struggled to keep their balance—the TweedleDibs, Gir, Tak, Miss Bitters. Gaz closed her eyes so that she could not see the end. All she felt was her world spinning, spinning.

_Tick…_

_ Tock…_

_ Tick…_

_ Tock…_

"…no running in the hallways."

_Tick…_

_ Tock…_

_ Tick…_

_ Tock…_

"…Come on. Let's go to lunch."

_ Tick…_

_ Tock…_

_ Tick…_

_ Tock…_

"…Zim…?"

Everything was dark. She was on her knees, crawling. Her head hit a door and her arm slithered up to find the knob. Slipping it to the right, she cracked the door open. She was in the school. She read the letters printed across the door to the room she was in; she was in the janitor's closet.

She stood, wiping off her black dress and untangling her skull necklace. With wobbly legs, she walked the empty halls. Her eyes darted to the clock sitting on the wall. It was lunch time.

She made her way to the cafeteria. Students were everywhere.

The one she was looking for was not.

Her mind pushed her heart aside and took control, directing her to the table in the corner. She sat, head tilted down. Someone stepped up behind her. She figured it was Dib.

"You couldn't bear to eat the filthy worm feed either, huh?"

Her first thought was, _What an odd way of talking._ And that was exactly why she loved it so. She spun around and before Zim had the chance to smile, she tackled him to the ground. Everyone stared as the dark beauty clutched the Irken tightly.

Their hands intertwined as they kissed, secretly clutching the four jewels.

**A/N**

**Hehe, of course I will give you your happy ending guys! I may be evil with the cliff-hangers, but give me **_**some**_** credit :D!**

**I hope you liked it! Chapter 33/the Epilogue will be up shortly!**


	33. Chapter 33

**A/N **

**The end has arrived! Oh, man. I promised myself I wouldn't cry—and I'm not going to XD. But I will miss this story. It has been the longest one I have ever written! So anyways, I hope you like it!**

Hand in hand they made their way down the street, slowing when Gaz's house came into view. Shuffling through her purse, she looped a finger through her keys and dangled them in the air. _Click_, and the door was open. She stepped within, but only made it to the doorway.

"Nervous?" Zim asked.

"After being in Wonderland for so long, I guess I still feel like I have to watch my back or some mad woman with jewels will chase after me."

He chuckled. "Unless Miss Bitters is like the Red Queen, I doubt you have anything to worry about. I mean let's face it, the Red Queen was cruel, power-hungry, scary beyond all reason, and—" He stopped. "Okay, maybe you do need to watch out."

"Thanks for the assurance," she huffed, closing the door behind him.

"Hey, what can I say? I'm a reassuring kind of Irken."

She slapped a hand over his mouth. "Stop while your this far ahead."

He nodded. "Where is your family? I was expecting your Dib-brother to be down the stairs sticking a probe up my—"

"Wait, I think I hear something," she shushed.

They made their way up the stairs. She placed a hand on her doorknob, yet found it odd that she already saw shadows crawling across the floor from beneath the door. Swinging it open, she smiled. "Hey, Dib."

He swiveled around, mouth agape. His eyes were swollen with exhaustion, his hands were cracked from nailing Missing posters onto poles, and his smile that finally arrived after some time was bittersweet with the agony of her absence.

"Gaz!" He swooped his arms around her, easily scooping her off the ground. He blinked his eyes open for a moment, but a moment was all it took. His throat struggled to contain the accusing squeak as he pointed a finger angrily. "You…" he growled. "You…you!"

"Yes, yes, I am me," Zim waved him off. "What of it, Dib-worm?"

"You're the one who took Gaz, aren't you?"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Hold your piggy sacs!"

"That doesn't even make any sense!"

"You don't make sense!"

"Will you two shut up?" Gaz hollered. She shoved them both down on her bed, ignoring the crinkling off the Missing posters they sat on. "Dib, just let me explain."

Zim swiftly stood and led her away. Dib rose to follow, yet Gaz gestured for him to sit down. He listened, grumbling and bickering.

"Do you really think the Dib-beast will believe you if you say you've been off in Wonderland this entire time?"

She shrugged. "What else am I supposed to tell him? He already thinks you kidnapped me."

"Technically," he hummed, "I did. After all, I am the one who set this whole mess up in the first place."

"You two don't need any help with your relationship," she replied. "He already hates you for being an alien, the last thing he needs is a reason to have rational hatred. And kidnapping his little sister is going to be a pretty legitimate reason. "

"Which is exactly another reason why I love Wonderland," he smirked. "Because it gives me a chance to pick on the Dib." He turned on his heels and clasped his hands together. "Okay, Dib-pig, I confess to the kidnapping of your sister. It was me. All me."

Dib shook with rage. "Why you little—!"

" What are you going to do about it?" he teased. He yelped, barely missing Dib when he tackled at him. He fell to the ground while Zim blew a raspberry, wiggling his fingers at the side of his head. "Ha ha!" he mocked, sprinting out of the room.

Dib moved to chase after him, but Gaz grabbed him by the arm and dragged him into an embrace. "Thanks, Dib."

Her brother sighed. "I was really worried about you, Gaz, All this time, I thought something had happened to you. I've been spending the last three and a half weeks looking for you."

"Has it really been three and a half weeks?"

He nodded, then frowned. "Did he hurt you?"

"Not at all," she smiled.

"I guess we'd better call Dad and let him know you're finally here."

"Don't worry about it."

"But Gaz…"

"It's not like he cared whenever I was actually missing, right? If he waited this long, he can hold out until he comes home from work."

He looked over her shoulder at the flyers and photos. He finally said, "You knew?"

She nodded in reply.

"I'm really sorry. He shouldn't have—"

"Hey," she waved him off and shrugged casually, "he's doing the best he can."

He nodded. "I guess you are right."

"You'd better go chase after Zim. It's what he's been looking forward to," she chuckled.

He smirked and jogged out the door. She grabbed hold of his arm before he could leave, though, and when he stood waiting, she said, "Oh, yeah. Mom says hi."

**A/N**

**Man, I love the ending! It was so bam, wow, pow! I can just imagine **_**Star Wars**_** music playing or something XD or even **_**Requiem for a Dream**_** from **_**Lord of the Rings**_**. Don't know it? Look it up on Youtube. Trust me, you will love it.**

**Well, fellow readers, this is where I say **_**Gaz in Wonderland**_** has come to an end. I have thoroughly enjoyed writing this for you and I look forward to writing another Zagr. But I have some good news for you! I will take a break so I can write some other Invader Zim stories, but there will also be a sequel to this story ;D Heads up though: it will be of the Horror genre! If you are easily frightened/ grossed out, I would steer clear of this story because I am going to go all out! Usually, I am like, "Well, maybe I should sugar coat it a little more…" or "Maybe I could do this…" But no more! I am going to have fun with this story *evil laugh* XDD Come on, we all need a good scare every now and then, right?**

**Until then, my readers!**


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